Brandon

“Some people are the world’s best at being alone in the company of others.”
― Christine Carbo, The Wild Inside

“Snow is a changing, fragile substance, which accumulates in layers: a deep puffy storm, followed by an inch of rain. Wind crust followed by cold light flakes. Avalanches are a combination of three factors: a sliding surface, a slope steep enough to slide, and a trigger. Here in Utah—and in other high, dry parts of the Rockies—more often than not, there’s a deep unbonded layer in that snowpack that could always slide, given a trigger. It seems to happen the same way almost every season. The first thin snowfall covers the mountains in a crystalized layer of sugar and anticipation. Then it stops, like climatic clockwork, for a few weeks. That layer of unbonded snow is exposed to the air, which sucks out moisture, creating slippery, faceted snow crystals called depth hoar. It forms a perfect sliding surface. When the snow starts in earnest, that surface, which avalanche forecasters call a persistent weak layer, is at the very bottom, slick and unbonded, ready to slide. That’s one of the constant hazards of skiing, you always know it’s down there. Just how big it could break is a question of what comes in on top of it.”
― Heather Hansman, Powder Days: Ski Bums, Ski Towns and the Future of Chasing Snow

“Being able to avoid thinking about something is the embodiment of privilege and for white people that is deeply embedded in American land use, social structure, and politics.”
― Heather Hansman, Powder Days: Ski Bums, Ski Towns and the Future of Chasing Snow

“In 2018, the average US weekend window lift ticket price was $122.30. That’s thirty times greater than the $4.18 it was in 1965. Over the same half century, US disposable family income grew slightly less than threefold. That means the lift ticket price grew ten times faster than people’s ability to afford them.”
― Heather Hansman, Powder Days: Ski Bums, Ski Towns and the Future of Chasing Snow