John Nicoletta insulted by Op-Ed Writer

[youkneebonger]

Medred is a tool. He regularly creates incendiary articles that divide rather than unite. He has especially taken to bashing the "extreme ski industry' lately.

this is a link to his most recent articles which created an uproar with Ak readers as well. He was trashed very hard, but nary a response from him or the editor (which i often wonder if they even have??)

http://www.adn.com/outdoors/craig_medred/

here's his pinnacle of douchenozzlery:



CRAIG MEDRED
OUTDOORS
Published: April 9th, 2008 11:14 PM
Last Modified: April 9th, 2008 04:17 AM
Someone please explain the disconnect here:

On the one hand, the ski industry is now encouraging all skiers to wear helmets just in case, for safety, because you never know what could happen on the slopes, yadda, yadda, yadda.

On the other hand, the same slopes -- including Alyeska Resort in Girdwood -- are enticing skiers to huck themselves off cliffs with promises of fame and fortune, if they survive.

Ben Johnson almost didn't.

The 34-year-old from Carlo Creek up near Denali Park "went big'' on Saturday. He didn't make the landing.

He almost didn't make it. Period.

He ended up in Providence Hospital with an oxygen tube in his throat. He's still there. He's had four surgeries so far. Doctors have fused shattered vertebrae and tried to rebuild his smashed ankle. His friends are hopeful he might someday be able to ski again.

Maybe. Hopefully.

Alyeska, which put considerable promotional effort into the First World Telemark Freeskiing Competitions, strangely never said a word about what happened to Johnson on Saturday. They didn't say anything on Sunday, either, or Monday.

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By then the news that someone had almost died in the resort-hosted event was starting to trickle out.

Johnson's friends seem to think it's cool he cheated death and only ended up in the hospital facing months of rehabilitation.

"Me and my buddies talk, and sometimes we don't know why we do this stuff," Johnson friend Dave Magoffin from Fairbanks told the Daily News. "But we know we have to. When we do this stuff, we feel alive. For us, it's a way to live. And it's gambling, but we have to do it."

I can understand those comments. Lord knows I've done my share of crazy stuff in the Alaska outdoors.

But let's face the facts. Johnson didn't do this simply to feel more alive, which is what we all do out there by ourselves or with our friends.

Johnson, however, wasn't lured into reckless risk by friends. He was lured into reckless risk by corporate America.

He wanted to win the Alyeska-hosted competition, which was promoted in this way:

"And the booty bounty is high for Championship title winners, scoring multiple day heli adventures from Valdez Heli Camps. Additionally, over $30,000 of prizes from G3, Black Diamond, K2 Telemark, Atomic, Rossignol and others will be won in the raffle to benefit The Friends of the Chugach NF Avalanche Center. The Grand Prize is a one-week trip for 12 at Valkyr Adventures Lodge."

Skeptical, nonskiing friends of mine seeking to defend corporate America's role in Johnson's accident have questioned whether anyone would really take life-threatening risks to win what is seemingly so little.

To them, all I can say is this:

There are former state legislators now serving time in federal prisons (or about to serve time) for having sold their souls for very little, though the monetary prizes really weren't the draw for Johnson and the others at Alyeska.

They all wanted the title. They wanted to be seen as the baddest, raddest extreme telemark skier out there.

It's the same sort of thinking that led Reid Sander to his death on Mount Saint Elias in April 2002. The owner of Hellroaring Ski Adventures in West Yellowstone, Mont., wanted to be known for making the longest ski descent in history. It cost him his life.

He was not the first to die trying to "go big'' in the mountains, and he won't be the last. "Going big'' has become an in thing.

Which brings me back to where this all started.

Where is the disconnect between ski resorts that encourage people to be safe while staging competitions in what is politely described as "no fall zones.'' Said terrain being known simply to all skiers as "you fall; you die.''

As Johnson almost did.

Aren't there enough skiers drawn to this kind of behavior without ski resorts encouraging it?

And what example does this set for impressionable young skiers?

So skiers like me are supposed to wear a helmet to set a good example?

Do they real think testosterone-laced, 16-year-olds care about the example set by some old fuddy-duddy?

Those boys and girls (yeah, a lot of girls seem to suffer from testosterone poisoning these days) are a lot more interested in the example set by the people "going big'' and getting attention for it.

So what I would suggest is that Providence Hospital simply sponsor the next "Big Air competition.'' It can do it right off the hospital roof on to a pile of trucked-in snow, and those who don't make the landing can go straight to the ER.

Where they can laugh about how they survived.

Sorry, guys. I've been in the hospital after a few accidents. It ain't all that funny.

Worse, though, you don't make any money off it -- win or lose.

"The man" makes the money. So if the possibility of ending up in the hospital isn't enough to make you think twice, how about the thought of just being a tool for the man.


Medred wasalso bashed pretty hard over on ttips after an article regarding a skiier injured during the World Telemark Contest at Telepalooza

http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=45003

sick balls, maggots!

[youkneebonger]

ooops forgot this great opinion editorial regarding the ben johnson incident

Media image of injured skier is wrong
COMPASS: Other points of view
By ALLAN WARREN
Published: April 22nd, 2008 11:15 PM
Last Modified: April 22nd, 2008 02:46 AM
On March 29, while skiing at the Telepalooza extreme skiing competition at Alyeska, Ben Johnson, 34, of Carlo Creek got himself in a tight spot. What he thought was a good line to ski turned out to be full of ice and rocks, and he was left with a difficult decision: ski the rocky line and risk life and limb, or jump off a cliff and hope the landing would be soft.

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He chose the latter, mistaking how high the cliff really was in poor light conditions. He fell for about 80 feet, landed, and then cartwheeled down the mountain another 200 yards, breaking his neck in three places as well as his ankle. Johnson was lucky to survive.

The irony is that Johnson was skiing to raise money to purchase sports equipment for the disabled a charity program I set up called Athletes with a Cause. Despite his good intentions, some people look at what Johnson did as a "stupid decision" brought on by competition, an effort to capture prize money and the corporate influence of Alyeska.

Johnson may be originally from Salt Lake City, but he has spent enough time hauling water and chopping wood during the harsh winters in the Interior of Alaska to know that blaming someone else for your actions won't help you get out of a tight spot.

"I should have known better than to take that air in the flat light conditions," Johnson said from his hospital bed.

We Alaskans pride ourselves on our personal freedom, and while practicing it, many of us make bad decisions all the time. While growing up here, I also learned that we pride ourselves on taking responsibility for those decisions. Finger pointing and placing blame might go over in the courtrooms of California, but it has no place up here in Alaska. Like any true Alaskan, Johnson takes full responsibility for his decision and the accident that followed.

However, this isn't just an issue of who is responsible; it's also an issue of motivation.

I'll be the first to admit that the extreme nature of outdoor sports competitions has been escalating over the years and that some of the athletes involved are motivated by prize money, sponsorships and glory. However, I work with a great number of world-class competing athletes and the motivation for every last one of them is first and foremost the love of competition. They love to push the limit of their abilities and have an insatiable passion for their sport. They are not "tools of the man."

Johnson approached the charity drive with just as much energy as he did his training, and before his accident he had already raised about $1,000 to buy a sit-ski for a sports program. Johnson relished the opportunity to use his passion to do some good and to share the joy of skiing with someone less fortunate than himself.

When we speak of the dangers of corporatism, what we're really talking about is the danger of the "me-first" mentality that is rampant throughout the corporate world as well as our communities today. This attitude is as present in our everyday social interactions as it is in our corporate boardrooms, our sporting competitions and even our newsrooms.

Johnson isn't an example of that danger. In fact, Johnson is an example of how one individual can make a positive difference for his or her community. Following Johnson's accident, support for him and his cause has poured in from all over Alaska and all over the country.

Ben Johnson started his efforts this winter as an individual trying to make a positive difference. He ended his ski season by bringing together a community trying to do the same.

Allan Warren is a graduate student in journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. His Web site, with information about Ben Johnson's recovery and Athletes with a Cause, is LifeMoreNatural.com.

http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/384151.html