The Touron Rope Duckers
Posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
Seems as if every ski hill has it’s fair share of these Darwin-approved tourons. According to a blog post here, these are two Texan teenagers that cut a closure rope and caused a big slide, sweeping one of them over a bad cliff band. Yikes!
Everybody remember to play safe, be aware of avalanches and if there’s a rope there telling you not to go there, it might be in your best interest to not. go. there.
Sounds like we, as a skiing community have a huge task at hand as more and more skiers venture “out of bounds”… I read an article earlier about whether or not to confront unsafe backcountry users. Avalanche safety is not intuitive, as we can clearly see with these two Texans. Everyone needs to be involved in a safety discussion.
Any ideas about how to reach everyone- both the truly ignorant and the hot shots who know everything?
You can find that article at http://www.skiingthebackcountry.com/blogs/Where__039_d_Ya_Get_Those_Packs_.php
I hear what you’re saying Ryan. How can we better educate these skiers before they find themselves in these situations. I’ve stopped confronting the unsafe users telling them that they shouldn’t be out there. Maybe we should try to just be a little more friendly and see where they’re going and hopefully point them in the safest direction, maybe even spray out the avy conditions and tell them what to stay away from. But even then, is that the right thing to do?
Anytime friends come to town, I do my best to scare the hell out of them with avalanche stories. It’s not that most of these people are stupid, they’re just uneducated about the subject. People see these ski flicks, guys dropping huge Alaska lines and running out avalanches, and they think they can do the same. Maybe more ski films should follow the lead of TGR and try to become more involved in avy awareness?
Any ideas from anyone else?