SierraDescents | Page 4
January 12, 2024
A Little Snow
Snow has been hard to come by this winter for many of us. Here's a ten-minute shot of snow on my balcony a few days ago in Flagstaff, Arizona, where I spent the holiday. I was (more)
January 5, 2024
The Elephant in the Brain
In the face of danger, human cognition is time-consuming and expensive. When the tall grass of the African Savanna rustled, those who deliberated got eaten. Those who ran away (more)
December 29, 2023
Bomb The Hell Out of It
If predicting the behavior of avalanches is so challenging, how do ski patrol do it? How do they make a mountain safe? Perhaps we should take a look at that—and see if we (more)
December 23, 2023
Turn Off Your Beacon
You can do this experiment at home, or wherever you happen to be at this moment, but for maximum effect do it in the mountains, on a day where you believe there is significant (more)
December 21, 2023
Revisiting ‘A Dozen More Turns’
It would not be entirely accurate to call the Beacon-Shovel-Probe paradigm a failure. Since its mainstreaming in North America, advocates can rightly point to a huge increase in (more)
December 17, 2023
Everything Under the Sun
I worry a lot about ice. For skiers, ice takes a game of skill and perverts it into a game of chance. Whether you are hiker, skier, or just casual visitor to Southern (more)
December 10, 2023
The Life of Snow
When used for the purpose of declaring a complex midwinter snowpack "safe," snow pit assessment is a fool's game. Never bet your life on a pit result. That said, learning how (more)
December 8, 2023
Learning To Read The Mountain
It's time to play God. Please take a gigantic bucket of water, dump it on your favorite mountain, and then watch carefully as all that water flows down the hill. Real or (more)
December 1, 2023
The Five-Minute Avalanche Challenge
Snow falls from the sky, pulled by gravity, and lands on the ground. Snow falls from the sky, pulled by gravity, and lands on the ground. On the ground, gravity keeps pulling on (more)
November 30, 2023
Mouse Trap
UPDATE 01-20-2025: Soon after I finished "Mousetrap" I realized it was the weakest of the 13 essays (for one thing, it's the least actionable), and I've been working since on (more)
