"Bombs are for avalanches--not people." - Freeskier
A Freeskier's Point of View
Know Where You Stand
A freeskier who wants to survive must know where he stands. (Click picture to enlarge. The dot at the top of the slope and on the right is a person.)
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One Step, Then Another
You don't get anywhere if you don't take that first step and then keep trying. This website is a tiny step on my part suggesting that we could live in a better world.
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To freeski is to ski in the mountains beyond the limits of a ski resort. A freeskier must be aware and respectful of hazards such as cliffs and avalanches. Freeskiing isn't about risk for risk's sake, but rather enjoying the world that God created with sufficient care that being able to do it all over again tomorrow is the high probability outcome.
This same approach should be applied to life beyond skiing. Something is either true or it isn't. It does not matter if the majority believes that 2 + 2 = 5. The truth is what it is even when it is not pleasant or popular. The cliff exists whether you see it or not. An avalanche is unaware of your desire to live.
The United States overthrew the secular, democratically-elected government of Iran in 1953. We (I am American) installed a brutal dictator (Shah of Iran) for the benefit of American and British oil companies. We have a long and shameful history of helping people in other countries by dropping bombs on them and destroying their homes and means of scratching a living from this planet. If you don't believe me, Major General Smedley Butler (USMC, Medal of Honor) said the same thing almost 80 years ago and wrote that the usual reason for war was to benefit the richest few on Wall Street.
The American Empire dominates much of the world. It does not benefit most Americans and hurts the people we've conquered. Suicide rates have soared in the U.S. military (veterans and families, too) with total deaths in some periods exceeding combat deaths. (Suicide update and the Pentagon's "solution.") The Swiss have a higher standard of living than Americans. Perhaps their tradition of minding their own business is the source of their prosperity and the longevity of their democracy (the world's oldest at more than 700 years).
The American Empire benefits only the very few, very rich who exploit the many (overseas and in America). If you aren't traveling by private jet (personal, corporate or taxpayers'), you almost certainly are not a beneficiary of the empire.
You may think that you benefit from cheap gasoline, but ask yourself who pays for the wars that are fought for oil. Middle Eastern oil is massively subsidized by the taxpayer who funds the military and the soldier who dies for it. To that calculus add the suffering of each child born in a land where we bring war. If our resources were not spent occupying foreign countries, we might have found other sources of energy and be using them more efficiently. Not that we need steal what belongs to others in the first place. When we produce something useful, people willingly trade with us.
Your television and newspapers lie. You can't save a village by destroying it. 2 + 2 = 4. Arbeit macht frei, nicht! We can co-exist peacefully with all of the people of this world, but not while we are an empire.
These are my words. This is my picture.
This page is about things seen from a freeskier's point of view. That is from my point of view. As for my friends in these pictures, I credit them with listening (with patience and good humor) to me state not so politely what I've written, and I don't presume to speak for them.
The photographs and text are copyright to me. A limited permission of use is given at the end of the page.
Finally, my preferred places to ski often have terrible weather, and other mountains might be much nicer places to visit.
This page is about things seen from a freeskier's point of view. That is from my point of view. As for my friends in these pictures, I credit them with listening (with patience and good humor) to me state not so politely what I've written, and I don't presume to speak for them.
The photographs and text are copyright to me. A limited permission of use is given at the end of the page.
Finally, my preferred places to ski often have terrible weather, and other mountains might be much nicer places to visit.
"Communism is when you are starved. Fascism is when you are dinner." - Freeskier
R, S, T, P
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“R, S, T, P” isn't just a drunken rendition (no, Dick Cheney, I'm not talking about sending people to be tortured at secret prisons that violate the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions and are utterly contemptible) of an Aretha Franklin song. It is my shorthand for the title “Rocks, Snow, Trees, People” of my favorite photograph of the 2011/12 ski season. The name comes from the image's elements in descending order of their masses. That being said, I think it is the people that make the photograph interesting, but all those cliffs and all that snow deserve a little respect, too.
Respect for humanity (while poorly followed, especially for all who weren't white) based on the understanding that each person is a unique and valuable creation of God was the founding concept of America. Not so long ago, America was improving, politicians exposed as lying criminals had the decency to resign or were censured and a reasonable facsimile of Rule of Law enabled the country to prosper. Now Congress is mostly concerned with raising money from lobbyists and securing retirement sinecures while rubber-stamping imperial decrees. In this era, a man who brings no hope and no improvement and has the vanity to claim to be a Constitutional scholar falsely asserts the right to torture (and assassinate Americans, more) in the name of his government. Government is a creation of man. All creations of man are temporary and inferior to God's esteemed creations. Government exists at the pleasure of the people--not the reverse. I want a country that is worthy of respect, and I demand that my country's government cease to be a cause for shame. |
"All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
Pictures enlarge when clicked. Most of the remaining text is about skiing and ski pictures. I find the mountains to be an excellent place for me to escape from that which is broken in this world. I hope that you have a place that does the same for you.
Snowplow Turns
Years of skiing have taught me that when skiing, I want powder. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to know that if you want to ski pow all the time, you need to be where there is a lot of snow. While many of my photographs are taken on days with nice weather, this picture should remind my gentle reader that the weather here sucks most of the time.
My pseudo high-brow title for this photograph is “Sisyphean Snowplowing,” and I think that is ok, but the first title that came to mind was “Job Security.” However, I've decided on “Snowplow Turns.” The snowplow is the first turn a skier learns, and I am reminded that there are a lot of people who make it possible for a lucky few to ski all winter.
My pseudo high-brow title for this photograph is “Sisyphean Snowplowing,” and I think that is ok, but the first title that came to mind was “Job Security.” However, I've decided on “Snowplow Turns.” The snowplow is the first turn a skier learns, and I am reminded that there are a lot of people who make it possible for a lucky few to ski all winter.
Uphill
Before skiing downhill, one must get uphill. Actually, most of my uphill is achieved by riding on ski lifts, but they don't look very cool, so I try to keep lifts out of my photographs. However, I like to get a lot of vertical, so I do appreciate being able to sit my way to the (almost) top. I think the saying is “Children should be seen and not heard, and ski lifts should not be in ski pictures."
I am hiking in this photograph. I appreciate my most frequent skiing partner taking this photograph and two earlier ones in which I appear.
I am hiking in this photograph. I appreciate my most frequent skiing partner taking this photograph and two earlier ones in which I appear.
Peak Above the Clouds
The sky, clouds, mountains, snow and trees are some of my favorite elements for a photograph in the mountains. That is a good thing, too, because it is a near exhaustive list of the items usually available.
Two Skiers, One Seen
When taking a ski picture, I rely on others to provide the action because I am standing behind the camera. In this photograph I capture a friend enjoying some of the nicest snow of the 2011/12 season and my ski track.
Hiking Before the Storm
A lenticular cloud obscures the peak in the distance. A storm is arriving, and this can be seen in the clouds on the right and below. The ridge is restraining the clouds at the time of the photograph. The blue sky on the left would be gone by the time my friend (in the middle distance) and I reached the spot we skied.
Untouched
I saw this scene after a new snowfall and captured this image before the slope was ridden. Later in the day I hiked and skied to the photographed slope and took “Paired Tracks”.
Paired Tracks
Two people have left parallel tracks. I find that sometimes a human presence can improve a natural scene. I believe this photograph to be an example.
Tic Tac
This is another of my favorite photographs from 2011/12. I named it “Tic Tac” because that's my friend's joke-nickname and because I think it fits the partial symmetry of the two major elements (sky and snow) of the image.
A photograph taken at this angle does a poor job of showing the steepness of a slope. However, there are two clues that indicate that the slope is a bit steeper than it appears. The dark slash (from upper left towards lower right corner) is an avalanche fracture line from a very small slab avalanche that Tic Tac released a day or two earlier, so the slope is steep enough to slide. Partially obscuring the fracture line is a little bit of sluffing snow put in motion a few turns earlier.
A photograph taken at this angle does a poor job of showing the steepness of a slope. However, there are two clues that indicate that the slope is a bit steeper than it appears. The dark slash (from upper left towards lower right corner) is an avalanche fracture line from a very small slab avalanche that Tic Tac released a day or two earlier, so the slope is steep enough to slide. Partially obscuring the fracture line is a little bit of sluffing snow put in motion a few turns earlier.
Above the Valley
I was traveling this trail between two backcountry slopes and thought it would make for an interesting photograph. The messed up snow in the foreground is where I turned around so that I could return to a vantage point that made better use of the nearby trees. (Some mistakes can be fixed, and those mistakes may go unnoticed unless you insist on pointing them out.)
Elk
I'd finished skiing for the day when I stopped by this river to see if I could find a picturesque scene with water and snow-covered trees. Fortunately an elk was there, too.
A Day's Final Descent
Clouds above, clouds below and mountains to the horizon illuminated by a late afternoon Sun on a day in early February some years ago. I had just climbed to the top of the adjacent peak when I saw two people preparing to ride the peak in the middle distance. I do not know who they were, but they seemed to be enjoying the mountains. As I took the photograph I knew it would be one of my favorites.
Thou shalt not kill.
© 2012 by A. Freeskier. All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to quote from the text (in part or whole) provided that the quote encapsulates the entire idea expressed in the original article, the quote is attributed to Freeskier and a link to this site is included. No permission is granted for use of any of the photographs. Note about image quality: The images provided for this page average a little over 200K per image. At times the server software delivers lossy-compressed images that require fraction of the bandwidth of the originals. This results in a lower resolution image. If this was the case during your visit, I apologize and suggest that you reload the page later.
I have been asked why this page does not include my suggested solutions for our problems. This page is my first suggestion. Talk to friends and people that you don't know about what is wrong. Another suggestion is to turn off your television and think for yourself. If you are reading a newspaper or an article on the Internet, ask why the topic is news. Is the source reliable? If you are reading so-called mainstream media, you most likely are reading "news" pushed by the richest few, those who are dependent upon the American Empire for their privilege.
Has your newspaper covered the devastation caused by depleted uranium? (See my link on the suffering of children and do your own research.) If you are unaware that we use the battlefield (and we make everywhere the battlefield) to dispose our nuclear waste, why is that? Depleted uranium is worse than Agent Orange. Depleted uranium is another gift from the American Empire to future generations, including the future children of those in the U.S. military. How does your television and newspaper try to influence you? Are you being told what to think and of what to be scared or are you being asked to think for yourself and question those who benefit from the status quo? If in your heart you didn't already know that the mainstream media is lying, the U.S. Government is run by criminals and for criminals and that usually war is about power and theft, you wouldn't still be reading this. Do you know how many children we have killed in Iraq (1996) and Afghanistan? Neither do I.
At some time in the future, I hope that the problems discussed on this page will be fixed. The easiest way to achieve this is for Rule of Law to be restored in the United States of America. But first, we have to start thinking for ourselves and talking with one another.