A Moment’s Pause — Fallen Writers, Bloggers

Lisa and I are cozy at WildSnow Field HQ, watching a rare Colorado snow sprinkle our stormboard. Four inches this morning, yahoo!

I have a few blog posts on the burner. Instead of doing my usual mouth breathing over the latest gear, here is a thought.

We shy away from politics and religion here, instead focusing on the universal “faith” in skis and snowboards. As for belief in God and that sort of stuff, we’ve got ours and many of you have yours, and we’ll all find out the truth when we pass. I love to talk about this in person, but again that’s not what Wildsnow.com is about. Plenty of other places on the web for such.

Partly in jest, I’d say climbing skins and other ski touring subjects engender enough controversy without us involving religion!

Meanwhile, the dirge continues around the world with people murdering and otherwise committing evil in the name of organized religion.

What got me going this morning was reading about the meat cleaver hack murder of a blogger in Bangladesh (ostensibly because of his written views). Then I realized we’d never done anything here in memorial of the folks at Charlie Hebdo whose lives were stolen in the name of fundamentalist perversion.

So here it is, this Friday, a moment of silence from us in memory of those who are way bolder than we are in their self expression, and paid the ultimate price.

8 Responses to “A Moment’s Pause — Fallen Writers, Bloggers”

1. Dan February 27th, 2015 12:17 pm

   Hey Lou,

   You just shamed me into writing our French friends. Thanks.

2. Scott Nelson February 27th, 2015 1:11 pm

   Good thoughts. Freedom of expression should be a fundamental right whatever you believe or wherever you are. Though maybe there is a line somewhere that we should respect? Unfortunately the extremists will always exist, no matter what happens.

3. See February 27th, 2015 7:34 pm

   “(A) line we should respect?” Definitely. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I have the troubling feeling that basic civility is going out of style. That said, any one who thinks dumb jokes should be punishable by death is an idiot. I think this has less to do with any particular religious doctrine (there’s some pretty wacky stuff in most religious texts, imo) than with aimless and angry people looking for meaning that somehow eludes them.

   I often wonder how many murderous idiots could have gained a greater appreciation for life and chosen a better path had they been introduced to mountaineering or some other form of direct and intense interaction with their fellow humans and the glory of creation.

4. Lou Dawson 2 February 28th, 2015 5:46 am

   Thanks guys for letting me drift, it’s a hard issue, chicken or egg, religion or psychotic using religion as an excuse? I take much comfort in individuals such as King and Gandhi…

   On a lighter note, we’re headed up our valley to Aspen today, checking out the Power of Four skimo race. Probably the largest race in North America? This might be the year skimo racing goes mainstream here in the New World?

5. turtle March 2nd, 2015 8:32 am

   hi lou – maybe you can use your two websites and the megaphone to preach some wisdom about humans walking dogs in avalanche terrain in wilderness areas? i am hoping an education approach will win out over opinion and ego. The law for dogs in wilderness is simple: “on leash, on trail.” the reality of walking your dog in avi terrain -no matter what designation it is- is that if something happens to the owner, the dog has no way to communicate to anyone who may be able to help. last time i checked, no dog in avi terrain ever had a kit. so please, be human, be smart, leave your dog at the road and go walk her in a ski area where they are welcomed. see aspen ski area uphill dog policy below, (note; dogs are only allowed at snowmass on leash)
   • Aspen Mountain: Uphillers must be at the gondola by 9 a.m. No dogs are allowed in the winter. The designated route is America’s Uphill course and it is marked. It starts on Little Nell run, goes up Bingo Slot, Spar Gulch, left into Deer Park and onto Silver Bell.

   • Aspen Highlands: To go beyond the Merry Go Round, uphillers must have reached the mid-mountain restaurant by 9 a.m. The preferred route up the mountain is: Jerome Bowl to Park Ave to Memory Lane and up to the Merry Go Round. Uphillers are asked to travel along the edges of trails, and in single-file formation. Dogs are not allowed at Highlands.

   • Buttermilk: Uphilling is allowed on Buttermilk all day long. The route is designated on Main and Tiehack by orange disks. The Tiehack route goes up Eagle Hill to Ptarmigan, for the most part on skier’s left. The route up Main follows the disks from the base, snakes back in the woods and then crosses Midway Avenue to Ridge Trail to the top. The Main route is closed during X build, games and tear down. No dogs allowed. Please hike single file and stay to the edge of the trail. The downhill skier or rider has the right of way. Do not stop under breakovers. Downloading is allowed on Summit Express chair and foot passengers must sign release before downloading. No downloading allowed on Tiehack Express. Straying off the designated route may take the uphill privilege away from everyone.

   • Snowmass: Snowmass is the only place where dogs are allowed with uphillers throughout the day; however, they must be on a leash. While there is no designated route, uphillers are not permitted on Adams Avenue (please see a trail map for exact location). Remember to obey closed signs.

6. Lou Dawson 2 March 2nd, 2015 8:45 am

   Thanks Turtle, overall good stuff but just to show how immature the Skico is with this, can you believe they’re doing the old kindergarten enforcement routine on us: “Straying off the designated route may take the uphill privilege away from everyone.” Why in the world they can’t just enforce such a thing on an individual basis is beyond me. Even yesterday I saw a guy totally ignore the uphill route, saw him start at the bottom and saw him finish at the top, with not a touch by the ski patrol.

   Can you imagine if they used the same technique to enforce rules for downhill skiers? “If any skier is caught going too fast in a slow zone, we will close the entire ski mountain — everyone will be banned.”

   Lou

7. turtle March 2nd, 2015 8:55 am

   lou -remember when skiing up hill at a ski area was a sure sign of being a poacher? and now look at it!
   i sincerely hope that others will follow jock jacober who set a wonderful example this year at the anthracite pass trail head when he asked me; “is this wilderness?” and when i acknowledged it was, he promptly put his dog back in the truck.

8. See June 12th, 2016 10:11 pm

   Je suis…?