Hand Drawn (and Hiked) by McCall

Goooood morning! Today, we’re practicing the adage “better late than never.” — I’m late! I know! I’m sorry. My reason (excuse) is twofold.

First off, we’re tackling a bit more of a Twitter-thinkboi-esque piece below vs. just regurgitating facts about avalanches and snowpacks. It was super challenging (and rewarding) to write, but definitely required a bit more time with the ole’ critical thinking cap on.

Second, my significant other subscribed to this newsletter (hey GIRLYGOO) and I experienced the worst imposter syndrome/ego flare-up/writers block of my life as a result. Why is writing in front of people you love so….intimidating?

Anywho, onwards and upwards! Thanks for being here. Let’s dive in.

Avalanche Chronicles

Let’s chat a little bit about inbounds avalanches this week. While they’re rare, they do (tragically) happen — and in the aftermath of the inbounds avalanche at Palisades I saw a lot of hot and very uninformed takes about it.

What really struck me amongst those takes was how quickly people claimed capitalism — “management forced them to open the mountain! They knew they’d make more money if they opened the KT-22 lift!”

The reality is, things like this happen and will continue to. Let’s zoom out for a moment: Ski Patrol does an amazing job monitoring terrain and performing avalanche mitigation, but there are massive resorts with lots and lots of terrain, and covering every nook and cranny of them is not easy. It’s called avalanche mitigation because it mitigates risk, not eliminates it. On top of that, conditions can change all the time and there’s already been a lot of snow this winter.

I don’t say all of this to be alarmist — I say it because I read a lot of responses from people saying “If I’m paying $1K+ to be out there, I should be safe.” Which is valid! But… we’re talking about Mother Nature here, not a building collapsing from shoddy architecture.

For people wondering how avalanche mitigation (like bombing, skiers cuts, etc.) isn’t foolproof, let’s chat through wet slabs vs. dry slabs.

For the purpose of this discussion, let’s focus on Tahoe. Tahoe lies within a coastal/maritime snow climate and snowpack. We covered snow climates over the summer, but if you weren’t around for it, maritime snow climates are characterized by frequent snowfall with relatively large amounts of snow in each storm, high density newly fallen snow and relatively warm temperatures. All of those factors combine to create what locals call Sierra Cement. Sierra cement quickly forms into a stable snowpack, and due to its weight, it’s less likely to avalanche than other snow types.

That said, we can boil avalanches down to two distinct categories for the purpose of this discussion: wet snow avalanches and dry snow avalanches. Because of the maritime influences mentioned above, wet slabs are more common in maritime/coastal slow climates. When you see/hear ski patrol bombing the mountain, they’re largely mitigating dry snow avalanches. There’s a fantastic chapter of Staying Alive In Avalanche Terrain that talks about how problematic wet slabs are for ski patrol.

In short, dry snow fails because of an increase in load (ie: bombing, a skier on the snowpack) and wet slabs fail because of a decrease in layer strength (often from melting snow or increased rainfall). Wet slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) that is generally moist or wet when the flow of liquid water weakens the bond between the slab and the surface below (snow or ground). You can see an extreme example below: this is a glide avalanche, which is what happens when the slab breaks from the ground below. While rare, these are extremely difficult for Ski Patrol to trigger in their mitigation efforts, if not impossible. That’s why, in the winter, the Ski Patrol team will close terrain based on snow coverage, weather, and adverse conditions, but during the spring season they’ll look to close terrain based on the risk for wet slides.

How worried should you be about an avalanche when skiing inbounds? Not very worried. Avalanches are rare in inbounds terrain. A rule of thumb when it comes to avalanches is any slope angle from 30°-45° is steep enough to slide (revisit that first image above for reference). Below 30°, the gravity holding the slab of snow onto the slope is greater than the gravity trying to pull the slab down the slope. Above 45°, the snow tends to not build up into thick, deep slabs because of how steep it is. For reference, the average range of ski slope angles for green and blue inbounds terrain in North America is 6°-25°. The run that slid at Tahoe was a 38° slope, per FatMap.

One last note: it’s important to remember that avalanche reports don’t apply to resorts. The snowpack inbounds vs. out of bounds is completely different because of the aforementioned avalanche mitigation.

So, how did this avalanche happen? My bet is there’s going to be a ton of information coming out in the coming weeks and months. Again, we’re talking about Mother Nature here — if Mother Nature is a beast, the snow is her unpredictable, erratic, and moody cousin.

What can you do to keep yourself safe? For starters, don’t venture into closed terrain. It’s closed for a reason. If the rope is down, do yourself a favor and stay away.

Artiste Break

Folks, I give you… the first completed 18×24 match box drawing! She’s not for sale since she’ll be coming with me to all of my IRL art shows this year — speaking of, I just learned this week that most official art shows (cough cough: Crested Butte Art Festival) require you to have original pieces of work, and not photocopies of them, hanging in your booth. Talk about having a butt load of inventory.

That said, I’ll be at Infinite Monkey Theorem in RiNo on Sunday, February 18th from 3-8PM selling prints of this one. Come hang if you’re in Denver!

Next up: a K2 match box — and an industrial sized paper cutter because I’ve gotta make these 18×24’s clean.

PS: Anyone know a lot about copyright infringement? A girl can only gain so much confident from Google and Reddit.

To Go Snacks

🎿 Does Teton Gravity Research ever miss? Nope. Check out their latest film, Backcountry Responsibly. Fair warning: there’s some pretty gnarly footage in here (see: bone breaks, footage from under avalanches, etc).

🎧 I apologize if it feels like To Go Snacks is morphing into What’s Cody Townsend Up To, but sometimes stuff is too good to not share. Exhibit A: this episode of Dirtbag Diaries. I loved the deeper dive into why The Fifty has been such a meaningful process, and of course, lessons learned along the way.

🗞️ Kellyn Wilson—my ski idol, and more importantly, style idol—started a newsletter about functional fashion in the outdoors (posh much???) co-written with Hadley Hammer who I’m quickly learning is equally as amazing. Give it a rip. I pinky promise you won’t be disappointed.

Okay, BYE!

- McCall 🌻

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here so you don’t miss the next one!