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!)

starting over (again)

is it possible to have more than one athletic passion?

one of my resolutions this year was to start climbing again with some regularity. two weeks ago i managed two days at the climbing gym. good start i thought. this last week, none. new year's resolutions are stupid.

aside from my crazy work schedule, snowboarding takes up a lot of my free time. most weekends i find myself heading up to the mountains where i share a ski condo. climbing, sadly, has taken a bit of a back seat. come spring i hope to hit rock (or plastic) more consistently though.

the thought crosses my mind. should i just focus on climbing?