Archive for February, 2012
4 – Coombs on “Nibbling”
Part 4 of 10 of some of my personal favorite avalanche avoidance techniques. The late, great Doug Coombs was well known for skiing bold lines, but he also had a lesser known strategy for avalanche avoidance. One day when we were talking about steep skiing and the importance of easing into a new area, he […]
3 – Dawson on “It Never Gets Better”
I triggered avalanches five out of five of my first backcountry trips to Colorado. One of the more insulting ones involved having a car-sized pocket of crusty snow pull out and dump me into the surrounding rocks. The mountainscape was more rocks than snow at the time and it didn’t even seem conceivable that snow […]
2 – Building a Quiver
Part 2 in a 10 part series of personal avalanche avoidance theories… Most skiers are familiar with the concept of owning a quiver, or variety of skis. Quivers often include powder skis, rock skis, fatties, all-around, racing, resort, tele, twin tips, etc.. The idea is to have the correct ski for the ever changing conditions.
1 – Above Average Skiing
Part 1 in a 10 part series on some of my personal avalanche avoidance theories. These are not meant to replace avalanche classes and mostly fall under the “Human Factors” category. Human triggered avalanches are far more likely to occur on a 38-40 degree slope than any other. The numbers drop off rapidly on both […]
Launch Pads
Ripping skins at the top of a climb is ideally done on a summit or flatish ridge, but it doesn’t always work out that way. There are a lot of times where I end up stopping on a steep slope next to a cliff or in the middle of a steep pitch to change over […]
Avalanche Talk
I’m going to be partaking in an informal avalanche roundtable discussion tomorrow night (probably tonight by the time you read this..), Thursday, Feb 9th at 7:00pm at the Black Diamond Retail Store. It will also include Brett “Cowboy” Kobernick from the UAC and Dave Richards from the Wasatch BC Rescue. I’m looking forward to it […]
OR Show Overview
Another Outdoor Retailer Show has come and gone. At two per year (winter and summer), times 20 years (minus a few missed ones), this was about my 30th OR Show, and I still really enjoy them. More than anything, it is a great way to catch up with all sorts of people, meet new ones […]
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