climbers, avalanches and our 100th post!

i'm taking a level one avalanche course this week with the colorado bryan mountain nordic ski patrol. so far it's been cool; an interesting grab bag of nerdy insight into snow crystals and "probing."

my motivation in signing up was to become a safer backcountry snowboarder. i wasn't thinking about mountaineering or climbing at all. what's been interesting to learn however is that climbers encounter avalanches quite a bit.

here's a curious graph courtesy of the colorado avalanche information center.



from 1950-1988 the leading activity in avalanche fatalities was "climbing/hiking." it's noted by the green line. (larger graph here.) the fastest growing fatality-inducing avy activity? snowmobiling.

there are some other statistics about avalanches on the caic website as well.

(an aside. this is the diary's 100th post. wild!)

liquidation sale! mountain logos - 50% off!

when i wrote about mountain logos in "mountain logos abound," i described my initial encounter with the summit entertainment brand on tv.



there was something about that logo that seemed way too familiar. i knew i had seen it before but couldn't put my finger on its familiarity.

i can now.



one of the most popular climbing web sites, the mountain project, uses an inverted version of the same logo. the typography is similar as well. oops.

here's to original design!

i see mountains in the oddest places (redux)

here we go again. this time, burger king chicken fries! i shot this today in the studio.

we'll call this one "breaded alpining."

someone get me outside.