EPISODE · May 14, 2026 · 15 MIN
The Avalanche Decides
from Field Notes: Voices of the Outdoors · host MEETR
February 19, 2012. Stevens Pass, Washington. Nineteen inches of fresh snow on a firm base, blue skies, and a group of fifteen expert skiers preparing to drop into Tunnel Creek — one of the most celebrated sidecountry runs in the Pacific Northwest.The group included some of the best backcountry skiers in the region. Professional athletes. Veteran patrollers. People who had spent years, sometimes decades, in terrain exactly like this. They checked the avalanche forecast. They discussed the conditions. And they made a series of decisions that each seemed reasonable — right up until the snowpack didn't.By the end of the day, three people were dead.The New York Times called what followed one of the most analyzed avalanche accidents in American skiing history. Their investigation — "Snow Fall," which won the Pulitzer Prize — refused to blame recklessness or incompetence. What it found was more unsettling: that even the most experienced people in the mountains are vulnerable to the quiet social forces that make it hard to be the person who says not today.In this episode, we walk through what happened at Tunnel Creek — the snowpack, the group dynamics, the decisions — and ask what it means for the people who take others into the backcountry for a living. Because a guide isn't just someone who knows the mountain. A guide is the person who has to know it better than the conditions, better than the group, and sometimes better than their own desire to ski.Field Notes: Voices of the Outdoors is presented by MEETR — find your outdoor professional at meetr.pro.
What this episode covers
February 19, 2012. Stevens Pass, Washington. Nineteen inches of fresh snow on a firm base, blue skies, and a group of fifteen expert skiers preparing to drop into Tunnel Creek — one of the most celebrated sidecountry runs in the Pacific Northwest.The group included some of the best backcountry skiers in the region. Professional athletes. Veteran patrollers. People who had spent years, sometimes decades, in terrain exactly like this. They checked the avalanche forecast. They discussed the conditions. And they made a series of decisions that each seemed reasonable — right up until the snowpack didn't.By the end of the day, three people were dead.The New York Times called what followed one of the most analyzed avalanche accidents in American skiing history. Their investigation — "Snow Fall," which won the Pulitzer Prize — refused to blame recklessness or incompetence. What it found was more unsettling: that even the most experienced people in the mountains are vulnerable to the quiet social forces that make it hard to be the person who says not today.In this episode, we walk through what happened at Tunnel Creek — the snowpack, the group dynamics, the decisions — and ask what it means for the people who take others into the backcountry for a living. Because a guide isn't just someone who knows the mountain. A guide is the person who has to know it better than the conditions, better than the group, and sometimes better than their own desire to ski.Field Notes: Voices of the Outdoors is presented by MEETR — find your outdoor professional at meetr.pro.
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The Avalanche Decides
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