A few days ago I was thinking to myself that he probably won’t make it through another year. He’s been struggling for quite a while now. He hasn’t been himself basically ever since his mom left us. Not even a younger partner in crime and kids could make it better. Well, the later might have had the opposite effect.

But I didn’t quite expect this turn of events.

You tell yourself that surely it must get easier with each one you let go. Being in the position of deciding “when” and making that decision, is a truly awful position to be in. Even when you’re not alone in making it and even when we all immediately knew what, why, how.

And I know now, that it doesn’t matter at all whether the decision grows slowly or it’s basically thrust in your lap by someone else. I really was hoping it would be easier.

But as long as there’s that: “We could do an operation…”, and you rationally know a massive operation at this age would only prolong the inevitable…

It doesn’t get easier.

So, farewell my handsome ball of fur, my bag of fleas (don’t think for a minute I forgot about those).

You were never old. You were always just a goofy kid and even if you obviously didn’t like human kids too much (and most humans in general), you tolerated them extremely well. You were perfect in every way.

It was a pleasure from your very first to last minute. You’re again in your favorite company.

So long and keep exploring. Both of you.

Several years ago I met a trucker and asked how he chose what truck to drive (it was a Scania R620). It’s not just a vehicle as your everyday car. It’s a tool, a workspace and accommodation all in one.

-I found it interesting he didn’t even acknowledge any other brands and upon further drilling his answer can be distilled to: “I tried a Volvo, it was laughable in comparison. Everything else is junk.” Funnily enough, when we met a few years later he was driving a Volvo (the deal was too good to pass he said). But ever since that first meeting I thought about this guy and his answer almost every day as I drive past shit-loads of trucks hauling on the corridor between Poland/Ukraine and Italy/Spain.

As the daily commute was becoming dreary I’ve started playing a game where I count trucks. After a few childish attempts I equipped myself with a tool to make it easier to track what brands the trucks were and how many I passed. So with my “scientific” sampling method I’m analyzing the market share of various truck companies on the road in Slovenia. It’s by default different than whatever official market share is in Europe (one example here). I’m only considering one 130km section of one road in one country for about an hour per morning/afternoon.

What became more interesting than the market share itself was the sheer number of trucks that drive by. On a typical day of a typical week that number hovers around 700 HGVs per hour (max 2000/h, min 300/h @ 10min intervals) . It’s just insane how much “stuff” gets hauled via this road east to west and vice versa.

But to come back to the original question, what trucks do these guys choose to work in (ignoring the fact their boss makes that choice for most)? The clear Finnish favorites Scania and Volvo are obviously not as popular around here. But not doing that bad either.

I wonder what his comment will be? Also, he might have to wait all week to count 700 trucks. :) *numbers corrected with more accurate data

Tanner Hall hugging the wall to stay out of the slide

Sliding in the wet

Sluff management demo

Sluff management gone wrong with a scary cliff drop as a result. Quite literally in the middle of nowhere – Kuril islands

Small windslab cut

When you’re unaware there’s slough chasing you… Mt. Hood

The Bearded Splitboarder account of a wet slab slide in Vasquez gulch

Vladimir Jovanovski in Popova Šapka in Macedonia

A proper clusterfuck in Les Trois Vallees but a happy ending.

Alfons Garcia manages to get out of the way in time on Baqueira Beret in Val d’Aran, Spain

Contrary to popular belief, Ukraine isn’t all flat. It has mountains and skier triggered avalanches like this one on Gendarme @ Dragobrat ski resort.

Intentionally skier-triggered avalanche near Eiseman Hut, Colorado, Jan.23rd 18

Large avalanche goes over an open ski piste hitting one skier

POV from Meribel, 3 Vallees sometime last year probably

Xavier De Le Rue escaping at speed to an island of safety as a slab cracks underneath him in Verbier

Guy gets lucky arresting on a spine as everything around him slides in Tetnuldi, Georgia.

Thomas Kray rides what is clearly avalanche terrain (Gazex clearly in view) and manages to deploy the airbag on his second attempt to stay on top @ Petit Balme in Tignes

Leo Taillefer setting them off all over the place in this compilation from Val D’Isere

Greg Weaver narrates what happened a decade ago on Sonora Pass

Talk about remote triggering… Gulmarg, Kashmir

UPDATE 16.4.2018

James Heim riding a spine in Alaska when everything around him dissolves

Florent Demaere cutting a slab on a traverse above Valle Blanche

Snowboarder oblivious to the mass of snow behind him

Airbag deployment above some sparse trees, guy manages to grab a branch and not get broken up in Czech Jeseniky Mountains

Leirdalen Norway in early April, not the ideal result when testing a slope.

UPDATE 9.5.2018

Richard Permin filming with MSP somehow outruns a collapsing spine

UPDATE 16.5.2018

Dash Longe in the Tetons. Found via the Guardian article on PTSD following avalanche accidents.

View from Pik Lenin camp as avalanche slams into 8 people on the way up

Thomas Feuerstein rides out of a slide sometime last winter

TNT channel mashup of various avalanche involvements, mostly POV shots.

These 3 below are some of those videos that I’m always conflicted about sharing… plenty of incidents with more or less lucky escapes, sometime making it seem as if it’s all no big deal.

Avalanche Riders by the Best GoPro Channel:

1. Part 1
2. Part 2
3. Part 3

And to end this, some education

BASICS 7 | Snow Safety & Awareness by HighFivesFoundation

Avalanche problems explained by the National Avalanche Center

Parks Canada crews set off a massive slide that closes a portion of the Icefields Parkway between Jasper and Lake Louise.

Large wet avalanche in Kackar mountains,Turkey

Similar large wet slide crosses the Valenciennes River Forestry Service Road in BC, Canada.

A massive powder cloud and power lines don’t mix well – short circuit

Ski-flyer avoids avalanche on Della Mountain, Idaho. Backstory here.

April 24th at Cheget resort in Terskol, Russia. Nice large cloud of white.

Yet another large cloud coming down the mountain somewhere (possibly Switzerland).

Nick McNutt filming in Alaska for TGR.

UPDATE: June 6th

Rock fall caused avalanche in Naked Lady Couloir on Snowden Peak. Report available on CAIC site.

Probably in Sweden, avalanche video by Niclas Karlson

Probably intentional storm slab release by Taos avalanche center in New Mexico

Mt. Saint Helens ski cut

Jonny & Ben Adler in a Vermont forest

Tom Oye with one of the first electric fan airbag deployments in action at Chocolate Bowl, Whistler

Darrell Miller filming with the Storm Show Studios

Skiers on Mt. Minamidake in Japan Caught in a Series of Wet Snow Avalanches

Unknown on Red Bull TV

Crystal Point Wet slide @ Solitude

Wet Slab Avalanche, North face of hatch peak. April 2013.

Sled triggered slab at Guardsmans Pass

Wet avalanche on Senggchuppa (3607m) north-est face, Switzerland

Hohes Bret, 21.4.2012, avalanche footage from around 4:50

Fieberbrunn, March 2015, footage from 1:30

Local section

Jani Hercog on Peca – Trebnikov žleb (a few seconds from ~0:27)

More local footage, location unknown, avalanche comes towards the end at 2min in.

Breaking the one at a time rule, unknown location, 2010

Stopped before he even realized he was in a slide

Bine Žalohar (on Vogel probably) filmed by the late Jure Breceljnik

Raimundo de Andraca, Sebastián Reyes & Borja Mir: Avalancha Zona central, July 12th in Chile

Henry Tof, ski cut @ Helbronner Petit Flambeau

Tanner Hall and buddies setting off avalanches all over this teaser

Nick McNutt filming with TGR outruns an avalanche. I’m always hesitant to post videos where someone escapes a slide, like that would be a totally normal and expected outcome.

Greg Hill and his 5 rules starts with a large avalanche

MSNBC does a very simplified “How to escape an avalanche” feature

Andrea Binning in BC, the slide that made the cover of Staying Alive In Avalanche Terrain by Bruce Tremper.

Eric Frigon, ski cutting a soft slab in Calamity couloir on Lipallian (South aspect), Alberta, Canada.

Sledders in Revelstoke, 2015 season

Nick Dorotik ends up on top after setting off a small slab in Colorado somewhere

Snowboarder cutting a slope at 3300m on Deda-Ena (Gudauri, Georgia) on 19.11.2016

Travis Rice broke a few bones in this big slide while filming The Fourth Phase

Assuming a conservative estimate of use increasing 8 times and combining it with our flat fatality trend means our fatality rate (avalanche fatalities per backcountry user day) has dropped dramatically. In fact, this suggests that our fatality rate has dropped by at least a factor of 8 (and probably more) over the past 22 years.

To the best of my knowledge there have been 0 fatalities in Slovenia this winter but that’s far less uncommon (despite the same type of increase in backcountry use experienced elsewhere). But more importantly for Slovenia, end of the season was also the start for the new and improved avalanche bulletin. And there’s some more exciting things coming out in the next few years.

Moving on to the videos collected since February:

Tanner Hall, setting off more than a few avalanches in this video

A relatively small, low consequence slide in Ischgl, Austria, March 2016

Skier triggered Storm Slab avalanche. 1st Creek, Colorado, March 25 2016

Austin Porzak getting swept over a cliff. Screenshot at the moment he’s still hanging on to a tree. East Vail, Colorado, March 2016.

2 skiers caught in a large soft slab avalanche in the Vail/Summit zone, Colorado, March 19 2016.

Turkey pillow line avalanche

Sluff engulf

Spring conditions and a wet slab on Mt. Lindsey, April 13 2016

BD/Pieps Jetforce airbag release in Niseko, Japan

TGR – Sammy C project in BC

Speedflier sets off avalanche

Snowmobile section

Snowmobiling near Golden, British Columbia, March 13 2016

Another snowmobile sidecutting, Valemount, January 23 2016

Snowmobiler not riding fast enough even with ample warning time.

Not really the kind of cliff drop he was expecting, Vail pass on snowmobile

Slightly older videos I haven’t seen yet

Hunter Schleper out-runs an avalanche on his snowboard, 2014

05.01.2015 in Königstal

ABS promo with Géraldine Fasnacht

EPIC TV – It Takes Two to Telemark

Präbichl, Austria

Snowboarder, unknown location, March 2013

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More below in the slideshows

Winter tour of Sør-Norge

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Summer tour of Sør-Norge

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Looking around this site it’s an obvious fact that I haven’t been in much of a writing mood for a long, much too long time now. Reasons elude me but calling it a simple writers block would be an understatement. The original motivation behind this blog, sharing interesting found content has moved to other, arguably more appropriate channels. But that does not account for the fact that some things I used to share, I was forced to stop with changes to Google Reader. And that I stopped doing any sort of longer writing and own content beyond uploading photos to the gallery. And maybe I just don’t have it in me anymore. I don’t know. I really don’t. But, unlike many people, I don’t plan to simply abandon it. It is my own album of sorts, a reminder, and I want to keep it like that. If anyone still drops by from time to time… thanks.

That said, I’ve come up with an idea. But that comes in the following post.