Meditations
January 5, 2019 is a day I’ll never forget. I issued a Low avalanche danger for the Wasatch backcountry. By late afternoon, I learned that eight people had been caught and carried in shallow wind slabs. In Broads Fork of Big Cottonwood Canyon, two people were simultaneously caught. One
Meditations
It was my first winter as a backcountry avalanche forecaster when the venerable Utah Dept of Transportation avalanche master Greg Dollhausen offered the following advice: Don’t ski in the backcountry in the afternoon. This was almost 25 years ago and I am still trying to unravel the mystery. (pc:
Meditations
I’ve been thinking about writing on the concept of Margins lately. Not so much to define and defend them, but to point out how expensive, cumbersome, and inefficient they can be. Tattoo’d on every technical rescue member’s arm is the Commandment “Thou Shalt Adhere to a Static
Meditations
I'll be out of town next week, so I'm sending this out early. We're headed to the Book Cliffs and then down to Ruby Ranch to float Labyrinth Canyon. It's a long way from Denali National Park, where NPS climbing ranger Travis
Avalanche
Have you ever played Three Card Monte? It’s a card game commonly found on some of the more, uh, lively streets of big cities. There’s a dealer with three cards and a very light card table. The three cards are generally a red queen (often the queen of
Meditations
(for ES and LE) He leans back, the anchor settles and then it pulls. The route is 90’ high and it’s just over 2 seconds before he hits the ground. Less time than it takes to read these first two sentences. What do you think about in those 2.
Meditations
War endures because young men love it and old men love it in them.....And so begins Judge Holden’s* discourse on the subject. Let’s continue. Every child knows that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value
Meditations
Earlier this winter, I got a call from an avalanche colleague in California. “Drew, I haven’t been sleeping well. My ulcer has flared again.” “Tell me.” “Six weeks ago, I was out alone and was caught in an avalanche. I lost gear but I’m fine. I haven’t
Meditations
When I moved to Japan in the early 1990s, my ‘handler’ Stacy guided me around for much of the first month. He had me chauffeur him through town and country so I could get the lay of the land and learn to drive on the opposite side of the road.
Meditations
It's been quite the winter. Feast or famine. The climate change forecasters told us it would be like this. Coincidence, I'm sure. In this newsletter, I want to explore survival, the power of the mind, and the Hand of God. The two pieces below may have
Meditations
Years ago, Edward Abbey concluded that the desert had no heart. I wonder if he just didn't look upstream.
Search & Rescue
When I worked as a Jenny Lake climbing ranger in Grand Teton National Park, I would often take my dinner over to the west porch of the rescue cache. Our cabins were nestled along Cottonwood Creek on the east side of Lupine Meadows and from my evening vantage, I could