Sportgevity

Robb Gaffney—the Squaw Valley-based former extreme skier and current PhD who literally wrote the book on the gnarliest lines at Squaw—recently launched a new website called Sportgevity.com, which seeks to shift the outdoor and action sports industry to prioritize longevity and sustainability in sports. The sites uses academic research, interviews with long-lasting athletes, and other experts to help offer smart, safe ways to stay in your sport for as long as possible. 

I believe in what Robb is doing, which is why I’ve started writing for his site as well. You can check out my interview with Jasper Shealy, an expert on ski-related injuries, and my interview with mountain guide Martin Volken about smart decision making in the backcountry. Stay tuned to Sportgevity.com for more stories, too!

Into the Mind

I’m fascinated by the idea of what goes on in an athlete’s brain before and during their sport. Especially amongst skiers, a breed of people who seem willing to take massive risks for the chance to enjoy a few undisturbed powder turns. Which is why I was particularly interested and in awe of the new trailer recently released by Sherpas Cinemas for their new film, “Into the Mind,” which will debut in the fall of 2013. The film will examine skiers’ psychological process of risk taking and decision making in the mountains. The trailer is beautifully produced. Read more about the film in this story by Molly Baker on ESPN Freeskiing. 

Reset, Refresh

I just finished up a two-day avalanche refresher course here in Tahoe, taught by the honorable Lel Tone, Alaskan heli guide, Squaw Valley ski patroller, and avalanche educator and forecaster. My peers in the class were a collection of some of Tahoe’s most talented female skiers, including Ingrid Backstrom, Michelle Parker, Elyse Saugstad, Amie Engerbretson, Jackie Passo, and Sherry McConkey — a good reminder that even pro skiers are getting refresher courses in avy education. We did some classroom work (looking at case studies, analyzing terrain and route selection, discussing human factors and decision making, and more) and then did some rescue scenarios and practiced searching with our beacons out in the snow. Find an avalanche course near you at www.avalanche.org. Here are some photos from the course.

The manuals.

Elyse Saugstad with her four backcountry essentials: beacon, shovel, probe, ABS backpack.

From left, Lel Tone watches as Ingrid Backstrom and Jackie Paaso rehearse a rescue scenario.

Amie Engerbretson, Michelle Parker, and Sherry McConkey practice pulling a BCA airbag pack.

Winter Has Arrived

Trick or treat? Or powder skiing? Winter has arrived early in Tahoe and I got to make my first turns of the season even before Halloween, thanks to a three-foot storm that arrived this week. Needless to say, I am happy to be living back in the mountains.

Tunnel Vision

Photo of Chris Rudolph, by Ian Coble

When an avalanche on the backside of Washington’s Stevens Pass ski area killed three of my friends and ski partners last February, I was shocked wordless. I couldn’t even begin to describe how I felt, a hybrid of sorrow, paranoia, guilt, sadness and utter terror. The men who died that day were good, honest people and I couldn’t fathom that something this horrific could happen to them. And nearly to me and my husband, Dan, as well. I spent many months trying to come to terms with the reality, struggling to figure out how this could have happened to a group of expert skiers, all of us trained in avalanche education and smart enough to identify the risks. I honestly never planned to write about that day; I wasn’t sure the words would ever come to me. But eventually, the words began to form, and as I’ve learned, sometimes it’s the hardest stories to write that are the ones we most need to tell. 

I’ve written a feature story called “Tunnel Vision" in the Nov. 2012 issue of Outside Magazine, which is on stands now.

And you can can read my story, “The Lives They Lived,” on ESPN.com, which is part of a new, six-part series on avalanche education. 

Restoration Hardware

I’m a huge fan of sifting through vintage collections, yard sales and flea markets and finding buried treasures, things you can repaint or fix up and give it a second chance at life. Which is why when my sister recently invited me to a furniture restoration class, I was all about it. I brought in a small side table that was sitting on the street with a free sign and sanded it and gave it a new coat of bronze and blue paint. Check out these photos from the class, courtesy of Erin Thiem from the Outside Inn. 

Taken at the C.R. Johnson Healing Center in Truckee, where I visited recently working on a story about the High Fives Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to help people in the snowsports community who’ve suffered from a life-altering injury. Check them out!

Food deserts

My story on a new small grocery startup in Seattle, called Stockbox Grocers, just came out in the new issue of Seattle Met Magazine. Stockbox was started by two recent grads from Bainbridge Graduate Institute and their first shop opens this month in Seattle. During a business marketing class two years ago, they set out to create a concept business to bring good, healthy food into urban neighborhoods that don’t have easy access to a grocery store. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 23.5 million Americans live more than a mile from a supermarket and don’t have access to a vehicle or easy public transportation. These hard-to-shop urban neighborhoods are called food deserts and they’re a growing problem in the U.S. Check out the story in the Writing section of my website.

Worth Reading

With so many stories out there, it’s hard to sift through them to find the good ones. I loved reading these three recent pieces — so maybe you will too. Here’s my recommended magazine reading list. Enjoy.

The Vanishing, by Bob Friel, in Outside Magazine (July 2012): This gripping story investigates the disappearance of over a dozen women along Highway 16 in British Columbia, known as “The Highway of Tears.” 

My Dad, My Boy, by Mary Louise Parker, in Esquire Magazine (June 2012): A great read for Father’s Day, plus if you think Mary Louise Parker is just an actress, you’ll quickly realize otherwise (she’s a great writer, too).

The Wrestler, by Benjamin Percy, in Time Magazine (May 2012): I am a huge fan of John Irving, and I’m pleased to see he’s got a new book coming out (In One Person, out now). In this story, the writer spends a weekend with Irving. You need a subscription to read this story online (I read it in the dentist’s office recently…)

Taken on a morning skiing with Crystal Mountain ski patroller Kim Kircher this spring.

“Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you’re alive, it isn’t.”

— Richard Bach, “Illusions”

A Life Affected

A photo I took of Jim Jack skinning in the North Cascades in the spring of 2011.

When I interviewed Heidi Biber — a family friend of mine — about her experience as a survivor of a major Class 3 avalanche that killed seven people in British Columbia in 2003, I had no idea that someday I’d be in the same horrific situation as Heidi. I interviewed Heidi for a story for Backcountry magazine — you can read it by clicking the "Life Affected" link here — and hearing her story was profoundly moving for me. But it wasn’t until Feb. 19, the day an avalanche in the backcountry near Stevens Pass, Washington, took the lives of three incredible people, that I truly understood Heidi’s words. I was there that day at Stevens Pass and there are simply no words I could use here to describe the sorrow and the sadness. So, instead, I’m going to use some of Heidi’s words, from the story I wrote. Because in many ways, they are the same things I would say.

"I went into this surreal, this-isn’t-happening mode. It was as if I were looking through this weird lens and a movie was rolling."

"There were a couple of miracles that day. But not many."

"I don’t use that old cliché, ‘At least they were on the mountain when they died.’ It was a disaster."

“I felt tons of survivors’ guilt. Why not me? It took a long time to get beyond that.”

"The chemistry in your body and brain can change after an episode like that. Now, when I sense danger, my fight or flight endorphins start surging more rapidly than they did before."

"I think about the experience more frequently than you can imagine. It’s random. Sometimes it’s when I’m out skiing, but not always. The tapes go through my head, but they’re not as emotionally charged as they used to be."

“I still backcountry ski. I love it. It’s a huge passion.”

Risk

It’s been a pretty tough month for me and there are a lot of things I could write here about it, but I’m just not ready yet. So, instead, I’m going to share a poem that a friend of mine sent me recently. I think it sums up the way I’m feeling now pretty well. Enjoy.

"To Risk"

by William Arthur Ward

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool,/
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental./

To reach out to another is to risk involvement,/
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self./

To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss./

To love is to risk not being loved in return,/
To live is to risk dying,/
To hope is to risk despair,/
To try is to risk failure./

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing./

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing./

He may avoid suffering and sorrow,/
But he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live./

Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom./

Only a person who risks is free.

She Jumps

She Jumps is a non-profit started by pro skier Lynsey Dyer and writer/skier/pilot Vanessa Pierce. The organization does a ton of inspiring stuff to encourage girls to get outside, help them build a community, and push them to accomplish their goals. This past weekend, She Jumps organized a “Get the Girls Out” campaign to rally female skiers and snowboarders at resorts all over the country. My friend Ainsley and I tried to organize a group at Crystal Mountain and although we didn’t have the best turnout (OK, fine, nobody showed up), we still had fun skiing all day in florescent jackets (mine is my mom’s reversible, flowered jacket from the 70s). Here are a few pictures from the day.