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More about Ruedi Beglinger and Selkirk Mountain Experience

Bookmark and Share            By Lou

I’ve always liked Ruedi and been a fan of his incredible operation. More, I have dozens of friends who ski with him every winter. As mentioned in previous blog posts, I’m curious about just how safe being guided in Canada is. Ruedi published a letter on his website that says he’s done 5,600 days of ski mountaineering guiding as of this October. For the sake of discussion, let’s assume he’s had an average of nine people per day (I asked some of his clients for a ball-park average), for a total of 50,400 “guest days” under his wing.

As we all sadly know, seven people died during those estimated 50,400 days. So how does that compare to other activities? Take a look at this table and draw your own conclusions. But wait, considering the fact that fitness DECREASES your risk of death by a significant degree, and backcountry skiing requires a high fitness level, throw all that out the window! My gut feeling after doing a bit of math is that careful backcountry skiers, guided or otherwise, can rest assured they have a statistical likelihood of leading long lives, and if misfortune does occur in our lives, it will probably not be in the form of an avalanche — our days being guided or otherwise.

Posted by Lou on December 23, 2004 | Filed Under avalanches 

previous post: Ski History – Utah Ski Trains
next post: Guiding on Teton Pass to Continue for Jackson Hole Resort

Comments

2 Responses to “More about Ruedi Beglinger and Selkirk Mountain Experience”

  1. sarah July 16th, 2010 7:21 pm

    Hi,

    You may be interested in the film I produced about Ruedi and the aftermath of the 2003 avalanche called A Life Ascending.

    Check out the website, you can sign up to find out when the film will screen near you and eventually be released on DVD.

    http://www.alifeascendingthemovie.com

    Sarah

  2. Jonathan Shefftz July 17th, 2010 9:23 am

    I just noticed this interesting statistic:
    “As we all sadly know, seven people died during those estimated 50,400 days. So how does that compare to other activities?”
    So let’s say you engage in skiing of comparable risk for the equivalent of three weeks each ski season, for 21 days total. You have 35 years left until you’re too old for this kind of stuff, after which you will retire to xc skiing and mellow lift-served groomers. Then you face a 10% chance that you will die in an avalanche.

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Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information and opinion website. Lou's passion for the past forty years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about backcountry skiing and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the Fourteeners! Books and free back country information here, and tons of Randonnee rando telemark info.

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