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  1. #26
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    Sep 2011
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    Front Range, CO
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    This isn't social media, but relates to your power posing question. One thing I have noticed when talking to people at trailheads is they have to justify (to the point of being apologetic) about skiing lower angle terrain. Like there is something wrong with it. Weird to see posturing from complete strangers, especially when I'm there to ski similar mellow lines.

    On the Social Media question, I subscribe to the Colorado Backcountry Ski group (11,300 members) on FB. It has a ton of noise and the occasional nugget of good info. Its primarily made up of seasoned bc skiers advocating caution, attention whores and a shitload of noobs. Lots of conflict between the first two groups. I would like to think they balance each other out but that may just be my age and bias.

  2. #27
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    Jan 2004
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    the Low Sierra
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    17,818
    San Francisco Backcountry Skiers is another FB page you should join and observe.
    I didn't believe in reincarnation when I was your age either.

  3. #28
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    Oct 2015
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    60
    Quote Originally Posted by slcdawg View Post
    This isn't social media, but relates to your power posing question. One thing I have noticed when talking to people at trailheads is they have to justify (to the point of being apologetic) about skiing lower angle terrain. Like there is something wrong with it. Weird to see posturing from complete strangers, especially when I'm there to ski similar mellow lines.

    On the Social Media question, I subscribe to the Colorado Backcountry Ski group (11,300 members) on FB. It has a ton of noise and the occasional nugget of good info. Its primarily made up of seasoned bc skiers advocating caution, attention whores and a shitload of noobs. Lots of conflict between the first two groups. I would like to think they balance each other out but that may just be my age and bias.
    Second that Colorado backcountry page it's a shitshow but good for your research. An example would be what happened to peak 1 after a post detailing how to get up there gps coordinates and all

  4. #29
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    Sep 2011
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    482
    Quote Originally Posted by gmorgg View Post
    Second that Colorado backcountry page it's a shitshow but good for your research. An example would be what happened to peak 1 after a post detailing how to get up there gps coordinates and all
    I'm constantly amazed at the things people post on a public forum.

  5. #30
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    Aug 2007
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    United States of Aburdistan
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    Quote Originally Posted by slcdawg View Post
    This isn't social media, but relates to your power posing question. One thing I have noticed when talking to people at trailheads is they have to justify (to the point of being apologetic) about skiing lower angle terrain. Like there is something wrong with it. Weird to see posturing from complete strangers, especially when I'm there to ski similar mellow lines.
    .
    i think they are afraid to sound weak because normally they get rad. They are insecure.

    I passed a guy on a very common trail in UT to get to the top of very popular peak. near the top a guy started talking to me and brought up how he'd have made it to the top except he has to go to work now. He look ashamed. Dude, I don't give a fuck what you do.

  6. #31
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    May 2011
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    Truckee & Nor Cal
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    15,621
    The fragility of the average male ego knows no bounds.

    When I get passed on the skin track I usually just give them props and say I wish I was in the same kind of shape or something like that.

  7. #32
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    Dec 2006
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    Your Mom's House
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    8,298
    If I wanted backcountry skiing to be a competition I'd buy a dicksuit and go #skimo. I'm out there to slow down, enjoy the mountains and time with friends, and maybe make a fun turn or two. I don't really understand the need to prove anything to anybody.

  8. #33
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    Sep 2008
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    Quote Originally Posted by TahoeJ View Post
    The fragility of the average male ego knows no bounds.
    Last Friday I skied a bunch of laps with my dog. It was snowing and blowing hard.

    Heading up the first time I followed a well placed skin track and came upon a couple guys, probably in their 40's, who were also skiing with their dogs. My dog was psyched to meet some dogs. I asked were they'd been skiing. They pointed to a North facing area that is often wind scoured. They said it was ok, but not great. I offered to show them some Northeast facing trees that were likely to have better snow and be more protected from the wind. The agreed and we skid that line twice. It was phenomenal, with fast surfy snow perfect for low angle terrain. I took some pics of them and their dogs which I shared with them. Nice guys. Nice dogs. Might ski with them again some time.

    Then they had to leave. My dog and I weren't tired so we headed up the skin track again. This time I came upon two younger guys. Mid 20's. I thought to myself, "I bet these two work in tech." I asked were they were going to ski and they pointed to that same wind scoured North facing slope. I figured since offering to play tour guide worked out so well earlier I'd do it again. "Want me to show you a spot with some better snow?" "Nah," said one of the tech bros. "We've skied here before." No problem. My dog and I went on our merry way and skied a few more laps.

    Later, as I was about to drive away from the trailhead, I saw the tech bros arrive on skis. I rolled down my window.

    "How was it?" I asked.
    "Not that good."
    "That's too bad."

    A couple days later I was wondering out loud to a friend why the hell someone would turn down info about where to find good snow he pointed out to me that the frequently wind scoured North facing slope is on powderproject.com and that's why people always ski there even though it mostly sucks. This made me want to start adding more crappy lines to powderproject.com.

  9. #34
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    Nov 2003
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    Quote Originally Posted by stealurface831 View Post
    i'll smoke ya out one day, sfb.
    Nobody out smokes Dibs! And, I mean NOBODY!!!
    "... she'll never need a doctor; 'cause I check her out all day"

  10. #35
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    Oct 2003
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    Ogden
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    Quote Originally Posted by I've seen black diamonds! View Post
    powderproject.com.
    Damn, I didn't know that existed until now. My local area not heavily represented yet.

  11. #36
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    Feb 2014
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    ISBD, that is really interesting with the 20-somethings turning you down. I am always reading how newbs are anti-gatekeeping and want to be shown around or mentored.

  12. #37
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    Feb 2013
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    2,620
    Mine either thank God. In defense of ISBD's 20 year olds I'm way more inclined to take location advice when I already know that my plan A is shitty snow. Otherwise I'm kinda inclined to stick to my own ideas.

  13. #38
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    Sep 2019
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    Bay Area
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    There's a link to somebody's instagram video someone posted in the Tahoe thread. Guy sets off an avalanche snowboarding off a small cliff, "considerable" avy danger immediately following a moderate storm. Think he may have been buried too? Anyways pretty sure that incident is only on the 'gram, it was not reported to the avalanche center. Saw some other incidents that weekend that ended up on the SAC website at least, but it's like everyone in CA has a camera on them when they get caught...

  14. #39
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    Aug 2007
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    Quote Originally Posted by I've seen black diamonds! View Post
    This made me want to start adding more crappy lines to powderproject.com.
    Brilliant, ha.

    to the OP, this article may help:

    The Ski Media Industrial Complex is excited about the whole concept of heuristics lately, and for good reason. Modern analysis has revealed that most avalanche encounters are not the result of imprecise snowpack diagrams or poor pit analysis, but of the decision-making processes used by people blundering around in avalanche terrain. Or, as I like to call it, fun. And sometimes when you’re having fun, you do stupid shit, especially if you have reason to believe that the shit in question is cool because a) other people have done it, b) it will look sick on the P.O.V. cam, or c) it will get you sponsored and/or laid. That’s heuristics in a nutshell: the so-called human factors that lead to Bad Times.

    Maybe some day Progression won’t mean P.O.V. shots of switch spine-slashing over closeout cliffs, but rather paranoid stoners in penguin suits masturbating furtively in the trees, shredding very carefully on plastic rental bindings, and hissing like feral cats at cameras and social media directors.

    Which leads us to Hubristics. The science of the effect of cameras, free goggles, sex, cocaine, and other Incentives on Heuristic Factors In Avalanche Terrain. In other words, the things you think about immediately before shrugging and saying (out loud or otherwise), “Fuck it.”

    Hubristic Catalysts include:

     Must Get The Shot
     I have no idea what’s going on, but I am a really good skier and we’re skiing, so I’ll just keep blindly pushing forward.
     Look! A woman.
     We can’t turn around because we’re almost there.
     Hey, you’re a local, right? Cool, I’ll just follow you.
     This is scary but I don’t want anyone to think I’m a puss.
     This avalanche equipment cost a thousand bucks, so I’m going to get my money’s worth.

    If Heuristics and Hubristics are the real cause of avalanche accidents, as opposed to a lack of education and backpacks without airbags, we should focus on specific behavior that will disrupt the chain reaction of blundering, the key concepts that nullify cognitive biases and bad choices.

    The Anti-Hubristic Antagonists:

     Don’t get the shot. In fact, don’t bring a camera or even ski around them. It’s OK, you will still experience the reality of the experience without recording it. In fact, the skiing will be much better, because you’ll be For Real Skiing instead of pretend skiing for the camera. And, thanks to cognitive bias, your memory will soon become far better than what you would have recorded, especially when you’re telling people about it later.
     Don’t think about sex. Think about where you are and what you’re doing: the smooth flanks of the mountain, the skyward thrusting peaks, your heavy breathing as you slide again and again into the powder…dammit. This one can be challenging, which is why I usually pull into the trees and masturbate discreetly on the skin up, pre-gaming for the run ahead as if it were a hot date.
     Don’t trust anyone. Most of us aren’t as smart as we think we are, plus we’re probably distracted by thinking about masturbating discreetly in the trees.
     Use aids to overcome overconfidence in avalanche terrain. Ski on tricky over-sharpened skis with low-DIN bindings. Drink a lot of coffee and smoke high-potency marijuana so you’re really jumpy and paranoid.
     Exploit the power of pre-visualization by imagining yourself getting pile-driven into a deadfall-filled creek bed in vivid detail, again and again.
     Dress like an idiot, wear a ballerina skirt and Barbie backpack, or a penguin suit. It would be really embarrassing if Something Happened while you were already making a fool of yourself, and since people fear embarrassment more than avalanches, your Heuristics should improve by leaps and bounds.

    While our collective ability to rationalize sending it right down the gut will probably never diminish, the science of Hubristics might just keep a few more skiers out of the proverbial tree well. Maybe some day Progression won’t mean P.O.V. shots of switch spine-slashing over closeout cliffs, but rather paranoid stoners in penguin suits masturbating furtively in the trees, shredding very carefully on plastic rental bindings, and hissing like feral cats at cameras and social media directors. Given the number of highly experienced backcountry skiers getting pulled down, it might not be worse than what we’ve been doing, and would at least be funnier than the current sanctimonious seriousness with which we take our cognitively biased backcountry blundering.

  15. #40
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    Apr 2007
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    Tahoe
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    Quote Originally Posted by I've seen black diamonds! View Post
    A couple days later I was wondering out loud to a friend why the hell someone would turn down info about where to find good snow he pointed out to me that the frequently wind scoured North facing slope is on powderproject.com and that's why people always ski there even though it mostly sucks. This made me want to start adding more crappy lines to powderproject.com.
    To be fair, we try to preach to go out with an objective and not get lured into another line or aspect by the temptation of fresh powder. Maybe that was their thinking and accepted risk level. Or they may not have liked skiing with dogs. I'm a sucker for it, but not everyone is.
    powdork.com - new and improved, with 20% more dork.

  16. #41
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    Oct 2003
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    In Your Wife
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    I'm a huge fan of the "anti-hubristics" posted above, plus I got a chuckle out of them.

    I generally dislike skiing with a camera or around people who are taking photos (we're here to ski, the memories are stored in your brain, plus taking photos was FAR cooler when it was done with film), have an abhorrent fashion sense (I don't have any style, but I do have A style), consume a lot of pot and coffee, contemplate the potential of my untimely demise before each outing (since I was a teenager, my credo has been: if you can't wrap your head around the possibility of not coming home, DON'T GO), ski within my abilities 99% of the time, and poon doesn't interest me all that much. I would rather ski powder: it's just as good in the moment, and I don't have to listen to anyone afterward.

    To be gruesomely honest, I like booking into guided trips in British Columbia as a last minute slot filler, because I know it would be a lot easier for me to dig a stranger's corpse out of concrete hard snow than someone I know and care about. A few degrees of separation can be nice sometimes. I couldn't handle digging a wife or gf's(or my dad's for that matter) ice mask covered, blue face out of the snow, but I could do it for a "stranger" a lot more easily. And by the same token, there's a part of me that would rather burden a stranger with the image of my cold, blue, dead face than someone I love or care about.

    I contemplate the potential of dying in the mountains every single time I step foot into them, and if for no other reason than thinking of those people who care about YOU, you all should be doing the same thing.
    Last edited by glademaster; 02-18-2021 at 08:30 PM.

  17. #42
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    Sep 2008
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    Quote Originally Posted by John_B View Post
    Mine either thank God. In defense of ISBD's 20 year olds I'm way more inclined to take location advice when I already know that my plan A is shitty snow. Otherwise I'm kinda inclined to stick to my own ideas.
    I wasn't clear. They had already skied a lap there and were going to do it again when I passed them.


    Quote Originally Posted by SKIP IN7RO View Post
    ISBD, that is really interesting with the 20-somethings turning you down. I am always reading how newbs are anti-gatekeeping and want to be shown around or mentored.
    I reread my post and think I cast the two younger guys in two negative a light. I guess I thought referring to them as "tech bros" would add some character to the story before the "powderproject" punchline. But those guys did nothing wrong by wanting little to do with me. Maybe they were old friends who hadn't seen each other in a while and didn't want to hang out with some old guy. Maybe I had some nasty frozen snot they didn't want to look at. Maybe they had a plan for avoiding avalanche terrain and were sticking to it (where I was skiing was kinda sorta close to an easily avoidable small slide path). I was surprised they didn't want to at least talk about where they might find good snow, but I wasn't bothered.

    The line "Nah, we've skied here before," stuck in my head though. Why not just say, "no thanks." Why did he need me to know they'd skied there before? When I read TahoeJ's line about the fragility of the male ego I thought of that line and decided to tell the rest of the story because of the social media connection (powderproject). I think the tech bro stuff was a bit ungenerous of me though.

  18. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by powdork View Post
    To be fair, we try to preach to go out with an objective and not get lured into another line or aspect by the temptation of fresh powder. Maybe that was their thinking and accepted risk level. Or they may not have liked skiing with dogs. I'm a sucker for it, but not everyone is.
    Exactly. See above.

  19. #44
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    Feb 2014
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    Quote Originally Posted by I've seen black diamonds! View Post
    I was surprised they didn't want to at least talk about where they might find good snow, but I wasn't bothered.
    That's more along the lines of what I was trying to express.

  20. #45
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    Quote Originally Posted by SKIP IN7RO View Post
    That's more along the lines of what I was trying to express.
    You were clear. I just sound like a dick in that first post.

  21. #46
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    Nov 2002
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    Nothing more to add other that ISBD has been tossing out some consistently awesome internet lately and I appreciate that!

  22. #47
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    Feb 2013
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    Fair enough ISBD. No idea why they didn't take the suggestion.

    Edit: Also i agree with Foggy way to up the level of discourse.

  23. #48
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    Aug 2007
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    Maybe he licked his lips after inviting them? Maybe they didn’t like his tutu? Maybe they wanted to set of a slide for the ‘gram? It’s a mystery

  24. #49
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    Feb 2005
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    19,201
    Maybe they just didn't have the knowledge or confidence to go into unfamiliar terrain on the suggestion of a stranger? Just maybe?

  25. #50
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    Dec 2006
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    Honestly, I probably would have said no too. I mean if I knew it was ISBD I'd join up, but just some random dude? I #curate my touring partners and base my plans for the day around the group and the personalities and experience levels in it. As such, I generally try to avoid introducing random human factors into the decision making process while in the field. Sure, dude might know better snow. Does he know what the fuck he's doing? I dunno.

    That said, the "I've skied here before" line I also don't get.

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