Hi all - thanks for subscribing.... I began this Letters project a few weeks ago. It stems from the good reception I received from the original Letter to a Young Forecaster I read in Whistler at the International Snow Science Workshop (ISSW) and soon to be published in the upcoming Avalanche
Tom Kimbrough Letter to a Young Avalanche Forecaster0:00/111.7653331× (I HIGHLY recommend listening to Tom reading his short essay.) Drew asked me to contribute to this article but this Old Fool doesn’t have much to say that would be of use to young folks. I have been
Letter to a Young Avalanche Forecaster0:00/247.4453331× (thanks to Tom Kimbrough, Janet Kellam, and Heather Thamm) First, I want you to know that your job is more important and the role that you play in your community is more significant than you might imagine. In our line of
We're in Vancouver enroute Whistler for the International Snow Science Workshop. Of note, Orion featured prominently in the southern sky on the Equinox. Winter is coming. See you next week - Drew
I must have been reading Shakespeare (Aeschylus?) when I first came across the term Deus Ex Machina. Loosely translated from the Latin, it means God Out of the Machine. It refers to a plot twist at the end of a play where the hero is saved against impossible odds. I
Writing last week about Wendell Berry and my father kicked in some good memories growing up. You’ll have to bear with me. I’ll be back to the standard fare next week. Even though my relatives would tell me that my father was proud of me, I knew the
When things play out - sometimes seemingly against all odds - it can give us the feeling that all is right with the world. …and Don’t Forget to Write….. If you’ve written to me the last couple of years and I haven’t written back, it’s because of a
Wendell Berry died yesterday in his home in northern Kentucky. I was originally going to call this piece The Unsettling of America in reference (homage?) to one of Berry’s more incisive collections of essays on place and farming and community, but I settled upon this one. If you’re
In his important* book What It Is Like to Go To War, Vietnam War veteran Karl Marlantes takes a moment to describe an old NCO (non-commissioned officer), ‘Gunny Mike’. The year is 1969. I've either taken directly from, or paraphrased Marlantes below - Gunny Mike was close to
Another essay by my pal Chrissie Oken. She's a climbing ranger in Denali National Park There is nothing quite like the exquisite stupidity that comes with experience. The same ease that allows us to function smoothly after years of repetition can also slip us into surprisingly dangerous situations
Q: When is it wrong to be right? A: When it almost kills you. A few years ago, an avalanche forecaster well north of here issued an Avalanche Warning. When people rolled their eyes at the boy crying wolf, he doubled down and decided to prove himself right. Pretty soon,
I spent many years in this cabin in Lupine Meadows, but in many ways, I was only a guest. ❄️ The bats and the mice wonder When their guest will leave. The pronghorn, too, were seasonal guests.