On November 23, 2020, skier and filmmaker Nikolai Schirmer took a day off from filming to visit some familiar terrain near his home in Tromsø, Norway, which also happened to be the first area he’d ever toured in as a teenager. While the main zone consists of mellow slopes, Schirmer and his friend, Eivind, decided to check out one of the chutes on a steeper west face. With only a little fresh snow atop a solid base and no recent avalanche events in the area, Schirmer expected they would be dealing only with sluff management. But he was surprised when that sluff turned into a significant avalanche.
Mountain Account: Unstable Intuition
In April 2013, photographer Chris Christie and three friends ventured north of Pemberton, B.C. to Sun God Mountain and its popular, steep, north-facing terrain. The group split up, and after observing natural avalanche activity backed off from their intended line. Christie and friend Jimmy Martinello chose a nearby north-facing couloir, that from their snow pits and intuition, they deemed skiable. But their intuition was wrong.
How a spring day on Mt. Washington proves sometimes danger comes from above, not below
Conway, New Hampshire-based avalanche instructor David Lottmann, 41, is no stranger to the changeable nature of weather and snow conditions on his region’s tallest peak. Mt. Washington (6,288 ft.) is home to some of the highest windspeeds ever recorded on Earth, and in winter that can create serious windslab avalanche danger.
From Buried to Brother-in-law: How an avalanche rescue in British Columbia led to a marriage in Minnesota
As Hansi Johnson—a former Patagonia sales rep who now works as Director of Recreational Lands for the Minnesota Land Trust—recalls, in March of 2004, he was on his annual backcountry ski trip to British Columbia’s Selkirk Mountains with a group of colleagues and friends. His travel group, totaling about 10 individuals, was a team well […]
Illusions of Safety: After a friend’s avalanche death, a lesson in intuition
In 2014 Kim Vinet, then a budding pro skier and tail ski guide, headed out on a trip at British Columbia’s Fairy Meadows Hut. On day six, the unthinkable happened when an avalanche killed a friend and member of her group. This is Kim’s story of intuition, trauma and finding her way back into the mountains when the illusion of safety has been shattered. Here is what she experienced in her own words.
Mountain Account: Scott Rokis takes a slide for life on Calif.’s Mt. Williamson
Last March, photographer Scott Rokis planned to ski an Eastern Sierra classic, Mt. Williamson’s Giant Steps Couloir. Rokis hoped that shooting the line might open doors for his business but was apprehensive about the physical undertaking that would require 12,000 vertical feet of climbing. At dawn, just a few hours into the day’s journey, things took a turn for the worse after one misstep.
Mountain Account: A third-party rescue in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains
In early December 2013, Aaron Rice, a busboy at Alta’s Rustler Lodge, and friend Joe Campanelli were touring in Grizzly Gulch in Alta, Utah’s backcountry when they noticed an old human-triggered slide across a gully. They stopped to take pictures to submit to the Utah Avalanche Center when they were quickly caught up in a […]
Damn Enthusiasm: Greg Hill’s Pakistani Avalanche
In May, Greg Hill, who’s best known for feats like skiing 2 million vertical feet in a single year or 100,000 meters in a month, ticked off one of his life goals, skiing in Pakistan’s Nanga Parbat region. Then, two weeks into his trip, he got caught in an avalanche and broke his left leg. Two months after the accident, he’s sharing his story for the first time.
Mountain Account: Downward Spiral
In late February of last winter, Christian Mason joined a group of friends for a bc yurt trip in northern Idaho’s Payette National Forest. To shorten the 10-mile approach to Payette Powder Guides’ Lick Creek Summit Yurts, the team utilized snowmobiles for shuttling gear and people. After six days at the yurts, the group loaded up the sleds with excess food and beer, and Christian stepped behind a sled to be pulled out. Then things went wrong.
Mountain Account: False Sense of Security
Last April, pro skier KC Dean joinedphotographer Mason Mashon and friend Kye Peterson for a photo session near the Pemberton Icecap in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains. But after testing stability on similar terrain, KC dropped into a line and took a wild ride. Here’s KC’s story in his own words.
