Talking Terrain Management

The Wyoming Snow and Avalanche Workshop (WYSAW) kicked off a few weeks ago for their 7th annual forum style day of discussions, presentations, and state-of-the-snowpack talks. The underlying theme of much of the discussion was on risk and risk-tolerance. What is actual risk, what is percieved risk, and in general how our tolerance for risk as a culture has expanded and increased at an increasingly rapid rate.

Backcountry Magazine wrote an interesting piece on the days presentations called the "hell yes, or no way". Essentially, the article was stating that we used to only ski certain slopes when the snowpack was "bomber", however, as the culture has progressed and the tools we use to access the backcountry make it easier, we have also started looking to mitigate risk even in big terrain.

The article suggests that instead of choosing a mellow slope and deciding to take a bigger bite if we see fit, we instead choose a steep, larger objective and decide based on conditions if we will move to something more conservative - and this mindset is fraught with red flags.

The overall summation of the discussion and ensuing article is that when travelling and riding in avalanche terrain should move to a more black-and-white idea.

"If you can't say hell yes, then the decision should be a no"

Check out the article here.