Comments on: Traveling Today — And the History of Pitkin Avalanches

By: JIM

JIM — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:48:42 +0000

Hi Lou,
Have a great trip! Im a Colorado transplant who just got through your two excellent Fourteener guidebooks. Truly inspiring work! I just stumbled upon your blog and look forward to keeping up with you.

Safe travels

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:37:41 +0000

Have fun in Germany. My own Europe trip involved a fifteen hour train ride from Paris to Prague. At least we had a sleeper car.

By: Amos

Amos — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:05:56 +0000

The list would get a little longer if Fred Braun and Billy Tagert could speak from the grave!!! And I seem to remember reading a historic account of a catastrophic avalanche in Independence from the mining days. Have a good trip Lou, if you go the bar as soon as you land you may still be able to celebrate New Years on Colorado time, although you might be alone at the bar.

By: Matt Kinney

Matt Kinney — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:02:50 +0000

Just a comment on AK stats which are somewhat open to interpretation. We are doing much, much better up here in recent years with further education and awareness provided through a number of areas such as forecasting by CNF(USFS) over in Girdwood for Turnigan Pass and efforts in a number of other areas of the state that have popped up in the past few years. Despite the dramatic increase in the number of ski and motor recreationist hitting the BC in Southcentral AK, we are doing pretty good up here considering the magnitude of the terrain, isolation and lack of comprehensive forecasting that other states have developed with a long history of snow data and such. Formal avalanche forecasting is only about 5 years old in AK. And frankly and honestly, we do have the expertise that other states have speciific to forecasting, but we are trying real hard without much help ($$) to educate and take care of ourselves.
I think we are getting better, but it takes time and expereince, like other states, to develop a history of knowledge for particular areas of AK to give forecast credibility.

The fact that Valdez has had only 1 fatality over 30 years is pretty amazing to me. But time will tell. Cluster events worry me as “skier days” pile up over years in a low volume area like Thompson Pass. Almost had a very large and close one here a few weeks . It is was a soloist /w dog in his 6th year of BC ski expereince (”26-yo male” equivalent statistically regardless of skier’s age). It was the biggest skier triggered slide I have ever seen here. I think it was predictable, though not expected. Lucky dude and mutt. Lots of close calls continue as attitudes seek the steep way more ofter than not. Nice thing about living here is that as a resident, one can afford to just wait a day, week or whatever it takes and go hit the gentler stuff in the meantime.

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:05:27 +0000

Hope you have a safe trip and fun in Europe. I’m looking forward to your reports like last year, including those shots of desserts that made me hungry and envious.