SierraDescents | Page 3
February 11, 2024
Islip From Crystal Lake
I assume you don't need me to tell you, but there is a lot of snow out there right now. Yesterday Dave Braun and I drove up to Crystal Lake for a low-expectations scouting (more)
February 6, 2024
Is the ARkstorm Coming?
Following this latest atmospheric river/bomb-cyclone storm cycle, and SoCal's record-setting rainfall totals, I have a new appreciation for what the Army Corps of Engineers (more)
January 20, 2024
The Invisible Car
The levers and wheels are the easy part. I learned that lesson when I was fifteen years old. It was summer of my Sophomore year, and I was taking a driver's ed class at my high (more)
January 18, 2024
Safety Strategies for Young Men
Traditionally we implore young men to take fewer risks. Understandably so—accidents are the number one killer of men from their teens to their early thirties. I, however, (more)
January 15, 2024
Defying Mother Nature
Where human behavior is concerned, insight has value only if it leads to change. Any good AERIE class can tell you exactly how to avoid getting killed by an avalanche, but that (more)
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)
