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

Just some defensive ski cutting

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.