Drew Hardesty

Meditations

Maine in Summer

Traveling along the coast of Maine.  See you next week -

Avalanche

Laughing With God and Nietzsche in the Snowpit

(Introduction:  When I asked Colorado avalanche forecaster and researcher Jason Konigsberg to look over a short avalanche essay that involved God and Nietzsche, he said, Sure, but I don’t know much about those guys…)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Bluebird.  I’m near the top of Empire. A beautiful white canvas of avalanche terrain.

Meditations

Making Sense of the Wolf

My good friend Terry O’Connor was killed in an avalanche in the Lost River Range in central Idaho last month.  He had been skiing in some of Idaho's more remote ranges this spring, and as such, camping is usually required for an early start.  Only a week

Meditations

How Valuable is Allen Iverson, anyway?

Bear with me.   Years ago, I worked on a mountain rescue team in the northwest.  Yet I hesitate to call it a ‘team’ because it suffered due to the presence of an overwhelmingly charismatic, yet mercurial individual we’ll call James.  James had broad shoulders, a square jaw, and a

Meditations

The Gardener

I always considered my father to be a master gardener.  In the last quarter of his life, he would enter his strange and inspired flowers into the county fair and talk shit to his competitors, often well-heeled ladies that had, as he wryly described it, “the help.”  My wife’

Meditations

Beware the Beauty

Ok, I lied.  This will be the last Meditation for the season and it will be briefly about memory and beauty.  People tell me that these meditations are like being led into different rooms, but never to an absolute conclusion.  Why should this be so different? Time slipping away. That

Meditations

Thanks for the Memories

I was recently invited to speak at a friend’s memorial.  And so I began by acknowledging my fellow speakers, referring to a recent study on...fear.  The study found that people feared public speaking more than death itself; in other words, more people would rather be in the box

Meditations

The Assistant Spiritual Director Gets a Promotion

Avalanche by day Pisco Sour, Haiku by night. Now Free like the wind (libre como el viento). Jerry Roberts, Rōbert (pron: Rō’bear), aka The Reverend, aka The Assistant Spiritual Director, aka The Zen Redneck, was promoted to the ranks of eternal enlightenment on the first day of autumn.  He&

Meditations

Cloud Inventory

I knew that inventorying the clouds was an important part of the job.  I had just forgotten how important.  I know now that it means everything to me. Far out on the desert to the north dustspouts rose wobbling and augered the earth and some said they'd heard

Avalanche

Is Avalanche Education a Bad Thing?

artwork by mike clelland Why do people take avalanche classes?   I have been so curious recently about the MOTIVATIONS of avalanche students. Can they be boiled down to two generalizations? A:  I want the risk of being injured in the backcountry to be less than it is today.   B:  I

Summer's End

Basho's Narrow Road North is a cold winding path. First steps of autumn. For my friend Rōbert

Meditations

The Hunter

"If our father had had his way, nobody who did not know how to fish would be allowed to disgrace a fish by catching him." Norman Maclean Chase Wharton’s father was a long-time National Park Service ranger and superintendent and Chase has continued along this path.