Fall Break

We're in Vancouver enroute Whistler for the International Snow Science Workshop. Of note, Orion featured prominently in the southern sky on the Equinox. Winter is coming. See you next week - Drew

Through Thin Ice

I must have been reading Shakespeare (Aeschylus?) when I first came across the term Deus Ex Machina.  Loosely translated from the Latin, it means God Out of the Machine.  It refers to a plot twist at the end of a play where the hero is saved against impossible odds.  I

My Father's Face

Writing last week about Wendell Berry and my father kicked in some good memories growing up.  You’ll have to bear with me.  I’ll be back to the standard fare next week.   Even though my relatives would tell me that my father was proud of me, I knew the

Postcard from the Tetons

When things play out - sometimes seemingly against all odds - it can give us the feeling that all is right with the world.   …and Don’t Forget to Write….. If you’ve written to me the last couple of years and I haven’t written back, it’s because of a

Another Turn of the Crank

Wendell Berry died yesterday in his home in northern Kentucky.  I was originally going to call this piece The Unsettling of America in reference (homage?) to one of Berry’s more incisive collections of essays on place and farming and community, but I settled upon this one.  If you’re

Why Gunny Mike Matters

In his important* book What It Is Like to Go To War, Vietnam War veteran Karl Marlantes takes a moment to describe an old NCO (non-commissioned officer), ‘Gunny Mike’.  The year is 1969. I've either taken directly from, or paraphrased Marlantes below - Gunny Mike was close to

Experience: If It Doesn’t Kill You, It Might Just Save Your Life

Another essay by my pal Chrissie Oken. She's a climbing ranger in Denali National Park There is nothing quite like the exquisite stupidity that comes with experience. The same ease that allows us to function smoothly after years of repetition can also slip us into surprisingly dangerous situations

Q: When is it wrong to be right?

Q: When is it wrong to be right? A: When it almost kills you.  A few years ago, an avalanche forecaster well north of here issued an Avalanche Warning.  When people rolled their eyes at the boy crying wolf, he doubled down and decided to prove himself right.  Pretty soon,

A Guest Along Cottonwood Creek

I spent many years in this cabin in Lupine Meadows, but in many ways, I was only a guest. ❄️ The bats and the mice wonder When their guest will leave. The pronghorn, too, were seasonal guests.

BOOK REVIEW - Making Decisions in Avalanche Terrain: Human Factors in Theory and Practice by Jerry Johnson & Jordy Hendrikx, review by Drew Hardesty

(previously published last winter in The Avalanche Review) WARNING! Books like these are not for everyone. They’re only for people interested in how to make better decisions, not just in the alpine or the backcountry, but in our day to day lives. There was an era when the conventional

The Two Kings

(I’ve adapted Los Dos Reyes y Los Dos Laberintos de Borges). Long ago, in a faraway land, there lived two brothers, kings who ruled his own kingdom and between these kingdoms rested an uneasy detente, for the brothers only pretended to get along.  The one-eyed king lived in

“He Drove Right Into the Fire”

Whenever we are confronted with an important decision, *Conventional Wisdom* dictates that we look at and weigh various options, minimize the risks, and set forth upon a course of action.  But there are certain situations when, as long time cop and risk consultant Gordon Graham describes, there’s “No time

Ante Ora Parentum: The Climbers’ Memorial

We were in Alaska last week visiting friends. One of our stops was in Talkeetna to see Tucker and Chrissie. They are climbing rangers for Denali National Park. Chrissie let me publish her essay Ante Ora Parentum here; though she previously published it on the Denali Dispatch page. You'

Fight Like Hell

“After my brother's death, my father never walked very well again.  He had to struggle to lift his feet, and, when he did get them up, they came down slightly out of control.  From time to time, (my brother) Paul’s right hand had to be reaffirmed; then

Snow Falls Again in Autumn

Basho traveled north from his home in Edo (Tokyo) in spring 1689; his masterpiece from the 1500 mile walk is called Narrow Road to the Deep North. Another translation is Journey to the Interior. He writes, At Hiraizumi, I remember these lines from the 8th-century Chinese poet Tu Fu:

Letter from Shinya

Mr. Hardesty, Patches of winter snow still linger above 1000m, while the mountains are covered in fresh greenery, with kobushi magnolias and wild cherry blossoms in bloom.  Just like the Wasatch Range, it is a beautiful season here. The Niseko Avalanche Information was born out of sheer necessity. Forty years

"We must stop confusing academic research with safety education."

My journey to find Akitaya has led me to some unexpected delights. One of the people whom I hoped could provide a path was Shinya-san. He turns 80 years old next year and has been - to oversimplify - the avalanche and mountain weather forecaster (link) in Niseko, Hokkaido since the

Utah - The Greatest...*Rain* on Earth?!?

(originally published in winter 2026 The Avalanche Review) It was towards the end of the 2002/2003 winter when Utah Avalanche Center forecaster Evelyn Lees wrote that the Wasatch range was like “A cake decorated by a child, where they put frosting on top but they forgot the sides.”  That

Looking for Akitaya

Even though I lived and skied in Japan (northern Honshu and Hokkaido) for a couple years in the early 1990s, I remain an outsider. I've been looking for Akitaya for quite some time. Some history. On April 2, 1961, a number of large ground avalanches broke out almost

God

I used to believe that we were nothing without God, but I also believed that God was nothing without us. Now I believe the opposite is true.

Wendy Wagner, Horses on Heaven and Earth

It was mid-winter 2010/2011 and Wendy had just accepted an offer to forecast for the Chugach Avalanche Information Center.  At her going-away party in Salt Lake, long time avalanche hunter Tom Kimbrough and I arrived late, hoods on and carrying a bottle of Woodford Reserve.  At the

Paying Attention

Whenever people ask me, Are you working right now? (I get asked this a lot), my answer is always the same: To the untrained eye, it may appear as if I’m not working.     But at the heart of the matter, I’m getting paid to pay attention. This, of

Pray Like Hell

The writer Brian Doyle writes occasionally about times when he gets down on his knees and prays like hell. He's an unapologetic Catholic and makes no excuses for Catholicism, but when he says Pray Like Hell, I think he means it. And so I will do this, and

That's all Folks!

Thanks again for subscribing to Meditations. This wraps up the 5th summer of writing. I'm too lazy to count, but perhaps 130? 140 Meditations over that time? None of them are perishable; feel free to look over some of the old ones. To me, it's a