Friday, January 11, 2013

Mapless Skier Found, Dead. Locals Fined.

The ski blogosphere exploded this week following news that yet another East Coast big mountain skier had wandered too far from the corduroy and gotten stuck tits-deep in a spruce pit somewhere in resort side-country. In the two week window over Christmas and New Years, Vermont search and rescue crews saved forty five skiers from a hypothermic death by their own design. And, to the dismay of local power hounds and non-skiing taxpayers alike, they were left picking up the bill.

Dick Cheney in blue jeans should pay his own SAR bill some say. Others are proud our SAR guys and gals were there to pull Yankees fans and their fat wallets out, to live and pay to ski another day.

It's a wonder that during this same time period yours truly at Noreaster BC were chided, ridiculed and scolded like schoolchildren for posting detailed maps of our recent trip report from Lincoln Gap (comments about Andy being a Masshole have since been deleted). Critics said we had committed an egregious violation of the sacred blood oath of backcountry secrecy, while our more forward thinking readership complemented us on the service we do, which saves them both time and mental anguish trying to schwak their way to popular top secret BC powder stashes.

I'd like to think that we've done a whole lot more for them though. I'd like to think that those maps, which are absolutely essential to us executing a successful BC tour, might just save your life someday.

Does it make me a techno geek because I like to paw through Google satellite images looking for thin cover and steep slope angles, along with other telltale signs of quality backcountry skiing? Yes.

Does it make me even a bigger dork because I then take a screen shot, hit Ctrl-P and spit out a paper MAP of my upcoming tour? No way.

It makes me a lifelong boyscout at heart, which I guess is kind of a step backwards where coolness is concerned, but it also makes me prepared for my upcoming tour. I know where I'm going, how long it's going to take me to get there, and what to expect along the way to my anticipated powder stash. And, long after it's gotten dark and my cell phone battery has shit the bed, that dorky paper map is still there to guide me home.

Why keep an important state-of-the-art lifesaving tool like a paper map top secret??

Whatever your baseball affiliation or strongest feelings about the Garden Sate might be, blame for this epidemic of flatland ignorance cannot be squarely placed on the shoulders of wayward resort skiers who are lured out of bounds by third party directions to the local's favorite powder stash.

Next time your sitting around the bar at the K1 Lodge sipping a highball of Gran Marnier, do a little eaves dropping. Have you ever heard how people talk about sidecountry skiing around the local resort watering hole??

Masshole: "I know a guy who's friends with the director of Kmart ski patrol, and he says that all the best backcountry is just off the top of the triple, through the spruce to skiers left. He says just push, and push, and push a little more, and things will start to thin out. He says ski that, and when it chokes up again, push due west for a few hundred yards to find the next thinned section. It goes on and on and on like that! Ski, left, ski, left, ski, left. And when you hit the bottom, find the snowmobile trail back to town!"

Jersey Trash: "God that sounds amazing! Do you think there's time to slug another beer and head back up there before it gets too dark!?"

Yankee Pie Eater: "Damn right there is. Bar Keep! Three more MGD 64s, on me! We've got some top secret powder stash to snatch!"

So, to all you xenophobic flatland haters and ski elitists out there, know this. Eventually someone will pay the price for your need for privacy. And it's going to be pretty hard to stick them with the bill when they're dead.

You may think you're keeping secrets but really you're only giving them just enough information to make them extremely dangerous. If they don't think to pack a map, how do you expect they'll remember to bring food, water, and emergency shelter? So what if it says DON'T!! at the top of the triple chair just before heading out of bounds. What's more exciting than that???

When they inevitably do die, try not to obsess about the fact that it's all your fault.

There are thousands of amazing backcountry tours in New England. On your next trip, take along a map. Then, pass it on when you're done.

15 comments:

  1. Oh God no! The "should lost skiers pay for rescues" virus has reached our site! Head down and don't look any frothy mouthed opinion givers directly in the eye.

    Kudos to Gered who managed to work the two most controversial subjects in backcountry skiing today into one post. You missed the extra credit though by failing to mention Ski-Link. You deserve a medal. Or a punch in the mouth.

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    1. Wow, people really get worked up over the public they land they use, huh? Crazy. Good job as always guys!

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  2. Paper map and compass (and knowledge to use them) are the most basic essentials and weigh nothing.

    I never understand flatlander hate. The ski business doesn't exist without them.

    Good piece IMO.

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  3. Yankees rule. 27-2.

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    1. Yes. Please add Red Sox and Yankees to this discussion because that always leads to rational, fruitful discourse. Does somebody want to get into presidential politics and religion while we're at it? Or tele versus alpine touring?

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  4. well said, and kinda hilarious too...

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  5. Um, did you read that thing? "Yankees fans and their fat wallets" That's just one. (Damn right we have fat wallets, And other parts are long and fat, too)

    Anyway, 27-2.

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    1. thank you for skiing. to continue skiing, please insert another $89 dollars in 10-9-8-7...

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    2. When i started mountaineering in 1980 a friends dad introduced me to the sport, he was an instructer for a collage in upstate NY. It was the beginning of a 10 year apprenticeship process that included understanding the phyiscal laws of mother nature. Safety gear was limited to the tried but true map and compass combined with years of experience. You were concidered odd by most accounts because you did not fit in with the mainstream. Incoming tech products and creature comforts we see today were just starting to become part of our lives. 30 years later we have the gopro nation calling us with HD (hero) video and the latest and greatest gotta have North Face products. Backcountry has now become mainstream (without the 10 years experience) needed to be mentored and earn the skills. Safety equipment today consists of a cell phone and a GPS and it is used as a short cut for knowledge. The culture in this country has changed from one of self reliance to dependance on technology. We defer to this technology to think for us which is a sure sign for disaster.

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    3. There certainly seems to be more interest in the backcountry as retailers drum-up "buzz" in the newest gadgets and recruit new consumers looking for something to do other than play X-box. This isn't all bad, however, as it increases the support for protecting our public lands... not to mention it enriches people's lives and improves their overall health. The law of averages, however, says that the more people you throw out there, the more village idiots will be in the mix. I suggest the way to deal with it is for those in the know to pass on the knowledge and healthy respect that we must all have for wild places. If you respect a place like the Franconia ridge in winter... or say... the Killington backside, you're less likely to get caught without the proper equipment, knowledge or preparation. Granted there must be willing students, but there also must be generous teachers willing to pass on the torch. Luckily you found yours.

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  6. Other day was riding the quad Wildcat and the other two guys on our chair were having a very similar discussion to the one imagined here -- plotting out a run based on some extremely vague third hand information. Told them not to bother as it was "too early" and there was not enough cover which they readily accepted and went on their merry way. This wasn't out of any proprietary dickishness (white plates on my car too), they just didn't seem to have any idea where they were going and I was with a friend who needed to stay on trail.
    In my experience people who know are extremely generous about sharing with those who don't as long as you show basic competence and respect. Anyways the "locals only" and "my spot" 'tude is nowhere near as bad in the snow as the ones found amongst fishermen.

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    1. Fishermen and surfers. There's something in the water.

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  7. long time reader, first time poster :)

    i tend to not post because i am a downstate new yorker who seems to get inherent hate for being a downstate new yorker. career, family, etc dictated that, but i spend damn near every weekend in the winter driving north to ski. i may only get 20 days a year, but its over 10 consecutive weekends more or less, and i'll often make the long drive to jay by myself overnight on a friday just to get some on a saturday.

    i've dabbled in east coast backcountry, mostly at stowe, and i check this site and FIS and skitheeast pretty much every day. last weekend i was up at stowe and stayed with some vermonters, who took me way further into the notch than ive ever felt comfortable going unaccompanied. and it was awesome. i'm heading up to tuck's for the first time this april.

    i don't really have a point, other than, not all southern new englanders and new yorkers are worthless gapers, many of us have a serious love for this sport and a respect for the mountains, and we dedicate our time, money, and efforts to skiing the east.

    and if anyone ever wants to take me on a guided tour of the backside of k-mart, i'd be an eager and responsible student, and i'm happy to pay for the beers after. also really eager to ski big jay, but again, won't do it until i have an experienced guide to take me there.

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    1. Sounds like you're taking the right approach... for a flatlander. j/k As a displaced Vermonter and current MassHole, I like to point out that where you're from his little do with whether or not you're likely to be competent in the mountains. After all, Doug Coombs and Jeremy Jones were both born in Massachusetts. (Coombsie even grew up just outside of Boston)

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