Backcountry skillz
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I learned to ski in the backcountry. I’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now. When I go backcountry skiing, in even the busiest areas, I’ll see about 20 people in a day. Not …
On Expertise
I used to order just one drink at Starbucks: a grande, 4-shot, long americano. I ordered it every day, twice a day, for about 4 years. Once in the morning and once in the evening. I know this drink. I …
Death by Snowshoe
I’m working on an article on the mechanisms by which snowshoers near Vancouver tend to get in trouble (injury and death). The summary is this: snowshoers tend to have slip-and-fall injuries on hard snow during periods of sunny weather either …
My Olympic Sport (Part 1)
I first volunteered for Search and Rescue in 1999. A friend of mine in university suggested it to me. It came up after a discussion about a high school friend of mine who had died on a mountain near Hope; …
That’s just how I slide
Looks like the 80’s, but it’s the 90’s; telemark skiing. Don’t emulate this photo for your own tele technique; I’m completely self taught and have a style that could be called unique if you’re feeling generous. For the geeks among …
How to get up in deep powder
I’m a Telemark skier. I started in university because the gear was cheap, and I was poor. Also, being poor, I did not have enough money for a ski pass, so I learned to ski in the backcountry. For me it …
On several occasions the following has happend:
I’ve secretly hoped I would be called on a search. I was called on a search. I did not feel guilty. I’m not saying I wish someone some misfortune, but given that accidents happen, there is a huge amount of …
Urban Searches and Homelessness
The SAR team was called out to search for a missing man in his 70’s with Alzheimer’s disease. This search was in an urban area of Burnaby near Central Park. Being a search and rescue team that specializes in wilderness …
Cell phone locations
The SAR team has had a run of searches at inopportune times. The first one was after an all night search, so we rolled from the first search, into breakfast …
SMS and Search and Rescue
Well it finally happend, and frankly I’m suprised that it toook this long. A pair of subjects we looked for all of last night and part of today initiated the search by sending an SMS (Text) message. I’m sure this …