Meditations
The Covid pandemic was fascinating in so many ways in terms of risk management and risk communication. There were so many parallels with the guiding and forecasting worlds. To keep with the cartoon theme (last week's Safer Than You), I am reprinting a three frame cartoon I had
I was able to convince Aaron Diamond into drawing this cartoon for me. I've wanted to write a piece on this for awhile but then it struck me that a cartoon would be its greatest form. Thanks Aaron. Aaron is a cartoonist moonlighting as a mountain guide and
Avalanche
(A Companion Piece to #nothingbadhappened) All too often, we find ourselves unable to predict what will happen; yet after the fact we explain what did happen with a great deal of confidence. This “ability” to explain that which we cannot predict, even in the absence of additional information, represents an
Meditations
It had never been done before and even the Bedouin looked upon Lawrence as if he were mad. It’s July 1919. The northern Arabian desert. Daytime temperatures reach 110°F. The sun is merciless. There is no shade, there is no water. And yet. Midway through his traverse through
Avalanche
This was 10-15 years ago in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada. When your good friend with a diagnosis of prostate cancer calls on a Saturday night and says, "We're going skiing in the Rubies on Monday and you're coming as well", you have no
Meditations
It’s July 1931 on the Grand Teton in northwest Wyoming. A 20 year old Glenn Exum spies an enormous ledge (now known as the Wall Street ledge, photo below) well to the east through a gap in the rocks. He hustles through some easy but consequential terrain to get
Avalanche
In that Empire, Uncertainty was no longer tolerated. And so the Art of Snow Pit digging finally attained such Perfection that the Resolution became the problem. One snow pit per Mountain range proved insufficient, leading to one snow pit per drainage, leading to one per slope, which led to one
Meditations
To borrow from Bashō Even at Alta - hearing the cuckoo's cry - I long for Alta.
Meditations
Does the Condemned man Floss His teeth The night before the gallows? Who Else but a blind man Wins a staring contest with the sun? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bright Constellations Now you see them, now you don't Alpine headlamps. (Evening views of the Middle Teton) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This world of dew is only
Meditations
The young alpinist Michael Gardner died this week in a climbing accident on the north face of Jannu East in Nepal’s Kangchenjunga region. Although I didn't know Michael as well as I knew his father, I do know that his star shined brightly. Searingly bright. He once
Two springs ago, a friend of mine fell through the ice on the Great Salt Lake attempting to save her dog who had also fallen through the ice. After a few minutes in the freezing water, she described experiencing a sensation where she was floating above the frozen lake, looking
For the past 25 years, I've worked as a backcountry avalanche forecaster in the Wasatch Range of northern Utah. Each morning, our office issues an overall danger rating on a five point scale between Low to Extreme (with a bunch of fine print and other details). We think