THR Podcast: Fire & Ice
About a week after the Palisades Fire, Jason Albert, managing editor at The High Route, reached out via email. That led to a short interview, which was a nice distraction in what was otherwise a pretty crazy time.
Jason and I kept in touch, and later in spring, he asked if I'd write something touching on both skiing and the experience of the fire for his magazine. So I did.
I'm happy to report my essay is indeed going to appear in the upcoming THR issue #2 (if you're interested, you can subscribe here). That issue should be out soon; in the meantime, you can listen to Jason and I talking about the essay via his Podcast.
We cover a variety of topics, including the genesis of Sierra Descents, the fire and its significance, the writing process, backcountry safety, and more.
— October 30, 2025
Andy Lewicky is the author and creator of SierraDescents
Bradley Brown November 1, 2025 at 2:26 pm
Fun podcast!!! Trying to describe the pedal turn absent the visual is like describing color to blind man-yet between reading your “experiment” piece on your improv ramp, years of following SD, along with your descriptions helped advance my understanding. Also, I’m fascinated with the avie discussion and your long time focus on consequence vs conditions-only to be complicated by the human factor. Still that wet avie (last year?) that your narrowly avoided must have tested that theory. As you said implicit in bringing beacons +++ is their use implies something has already gone horribly wrong. As in chess or tennis, it’s often the move before the move that sets the table.
On last point, great pic!!