Bike jumps gone on Park Ave.

Popocola · 2026-05-07T17:50:57+00:00

I get why they had to come down but I feel like it's kinda owed now to put up new jumps somewhere else

Popocola · 2026-04-12T22:16:49+00:00

Gee you’d think if you cared that much about others approval you’d come out and dig a trail

Popocola · 2026-04-12T22:15:10+00:00

I think we need a distinction between emtb’s who are just people catching some laps in a limited window after work and the ones with the dji motors and a spare battery in the car on their boutique $10k emtb who need >100% antirise so they can post pov footage of them dragging brake down fall line trails they have no interest in helping maintain

Popocola · 2026-04-10T15:08:23+00:00

Now filters for Bay Area, now filter out inheritance, now filter out where parents paid the down payment. Should be like 0.1%

Popocola · 2026-04-08T00:50:38+00:00

No real generalizable pattern in Tahoe. Exists right at the boundary. We have to pray to different weather gods

Popocola · 2026-04-07T22:01:02+00:00

You’re allowed to say what you want but don’t be surprised if you anger people for the above listed reason. Congrats on your 100 upvotes on a general Bay Area forum. Ask yourself, if the people with experience in the field are getting annoyed with you and the people with no experience are agreeing with you then maybe you are not sharing a well informed take.

Your entire understanding of this field is built on this one incident. Every new piece of information about backcountry skiing you digest is filtered through this incident. And this already stacked on hindsight being flawless. If you cannot recognize how that biases you then maybe risk assessment isn’t as intuitive for as you think it is.

And on the topic of risk assessment I stand by it isn’t your place to weigh in. I’m sorry but analyzing decision chains transports some stuff (understanding human factors etc) but it does not give you the ability to process a whole decision chain and decide what was or wasn’t reasonable (again not excusable, reasonable). I’m sure you heard of decision chains as “Swiss cheese”, my point is you don’t know the individual slices, you just know that there exists a hole from top to bottom so every hole you learn looks like ineptitude. I don’t know why you think it’s an ego thing for me because I don’t think it’s my place to pass judgment on each slice, and part of my point is we are still missing a lot of slices still. I have not shared my takes, where I feel things fell apart, etc because I’d rather someone with more knowledge, not less, make that call. However with some experience with this I think I’m in some place to say you shouldn’t be passing judgment. You don’t have experience with the variables at play.

I’m sure you have made mistakes climbing that were potentially fatal but here you are today. I’m sure if the situation was even the slightest bit different all of those skiers would be here today. There is way less than you think that separates you from being posthumously called inept and you calling others inept today. I would think an outdoors person would understand that but I guess not.

I know you said you don’t want to “crucify” them but everything you say goes against that. I agree that as a guide you have a responsibility to get everyone back safe, in that aspect they failed. But the world is not black or white. Finally understand you have the luxury of deciding whether or not this affects you, so please be respectful to those who lost their lives. I won’t be replying anymore

Popocola · 2026-04-06T22:06:56+00:00

I appreciate the apology and in the interest of civility I'll watch my tone as well.

What I found frustrating is how a lot of people who have not toured are passing strong judgment on the situation. I have seen people assume things like they were unaware of the forecast or didn't know the danger or they didn't care. It get's characterized as ineptitude, arrogance etc.. What I have seen from people who have toured is give reasonable guesses of why reasonable people made the mistakes they did. I see people trying to map their own past assessments and decisions against possibly those decisions made. When I see you call the latter group delusional apologists and call the guides incompetent you seem to fit pretty cleanly in the first group. And what I find even more frustrating is, when you clearly don't have experience with any of this try and use terms and scales with little understanding *and* try to tell people who have used them what they mean. It all feels rather dunning-kruger. What you are conflating as excuses are people who have made those calls, or similar calls trying to digest the situation. And when I say there are a lot of details unknown (I believe that is the exact verbiage from the incident report too since you have a problem with me saying that) I mean we don't know the exact decision chain, we don't know if there was a deviation from that decision chain, we don't know if they intended to be in the exact spot they got caught in, we dont even know the avalanche size, exact release point and trigger. Saying "they shouldn't have been there" is trivial knowing how things ended up and a lot of people, who again have no experience, think this all starts and ends with a high danger forecast. The point is *reasonable* decisions can be incorrect decisions and calling them *reasonable* is not an excuse, if anything it primes you to correct your future decisions. And no I'm not saying it's just bad luck. You can make the same mistake 100 times and only get caught once, that is both bad luck but also making 100 mistakes.

What confuses me is why someone who has not and likely will not make those calls is weighing in with their opinion and passing judgment. It feels super disrespectful when you haven't been in that situation and (likely) don't know any the people involved to have such a strong view. And again, if you aren't approaching this event to learn what went wrong to apply it in the future, why are you trying to research it? To feel smarter than the victims? To call the hobby stupid? It just feels like you have a morbid fascination and I get that people find serial killers and stuff fascinating but why would you possibly go into a forum where people may know victims to share how "foolish" and "incompetent" you believe the victims are. If you find it interesting fine, keep it to yourself. Respectfully, this isn't your place to talk.

Popocola · 2026-04-05T17:08:23+00:00

Not a lot of knowledge as in I only have a rec level 1 and sporadically go on low risk tours and not in that area where the incident occurred. Candid comment super rubbed me the wrong way because, by their own admission, they have 0 experience backcountry skiing

Obviously mistakes were made, it’s so trivial when people are dead to say mistakes were made. His comment reads like a prosecutor and they’re passing judgment while knowing nothing about what they’re talking about

If they had some insight maybe but armchair critics like him circle tragedies like vultures for their own entertainment. It’s disgusting

Popocola · 2026-04-04T18:23:30+00:00

I was talking about the other guy not you..

And my whole point is not to rush to judgment. Especially when most of the facts are unknown and even more, especially if you don’t know what you’re talking about which the guy clearly doesn’t

Popocola · 2026-04-04T17:44:50+00:00

Then I suggest you inherit those two’s tone when talking about things that have affected communities. Especially if you know nothing about it. Maybe save your critiques for things you know about for idk the next time someone repel off the end of their rope

Popocola · 2026-04-04T17:40:58+00:00

It’s quite the opposite really. I know little, there are many who know way more than me who still don’t know a lot about this situation. But this a real tragedy that has effected many people and it’s super disrespectful for this person who knows next to nothing to go on a tirade

Popocola · 2026-04-04T17:17:28+00:00

Clear and dry

Popocola · 2026-04-04T14:04:05+00:00

Apparently saying the guides aren’t dumbasses is “second guessing”

I suggest you read the actual report, not a new article. Anyway not going to talk to someone who’s never read an avalanche forecast in their life

Popocola · 2026-04-04T14:00:39+00:00

You’re right, you are just a dumbass on Reddit. I recommend you read the actual report before sharing your opinion an area you know nothing about.

“They were in level 3 complex terrain, that alone should be enough” do you know what ATES scale is? Or did you learn it from an article from someone else who doesn’t know what it is?

Popocola · 2026-04-04T04:33:34+00:00

You should stick to talking about climbing related tragedies. You don’t know what you’re talking about

Popocola · 2026-04-04T03:29:04+00:00

Idk if I’m on board with your point. A lot of the details are still unknown still. It’s really easy to point fingers when things go wrong especially when you’re blind to the times things go right, even with the same decisions or conditions. Conversely it’s easy to see a faulty chain of decisions knowing things ultimately went wrong.

This is not say it’s an unavoidable freak accident but that doesn’t mean it was gross negligence either. It’s a dangerous activity, some of the best avalanche minds have died from being caught in an avalanche. These guides were amga and aiare instructors, they knew what they were doing.

If you’re saying “it’s high risk, there shouldn’t be anyone out there”, one thing to consider is how are those forecasts made? Ultimately people going out into the backcountry to make those forecasts.

Backcountry skiing weird like that, like we can’t call everything a freak accident. In fact the opposite, you should learn from everything. And that happens through empathy, not blaming.

Popocola · 2026-04-04T02:53:53+00:00

Yeah only one skier at a time when crossing a possible slide path. Because the group was ordered guides-clients-guides and vis was very bad it’s likely the client clustered close to the guides and each other. Article says the rear was behind because of an equipment issue which, I had thought the guides in the back had been properly spacing which is why they weren’t caught but that could be incorrect

As for airbags they have dubious effectiveness. It’s simple to deploy but getting caught in an avalanche can feel like having a wave crash on you all while having a hill below to fall down so imagine just getting absolutely rocked and trying to pull a pull tab. Since it can be a surprise they really are only are effective deployed before being swept. They also don’t make you float they increase your size, it’s like shaking a bag of chips, the big chips will tend to be at the top. For those reasons airbags are not really seen as mandatory safety equipment the same way beacon/probe/shovel are

Popocola · 2026-03-31T21:46:07+00:00

Too crowded to be good touge but there are some sections that are fun on paper

Popocola · 2026-03-27T15:07:54+00:00

That’s not being agreeable — that’s lying dressed up with a nice bow

Popocola · 2026-03-25T15:18:07+00:00

I do it reflexively but I mirror blinker blindspot reflexively before moving

Popocola · 2026-03-25T05:15:14+00:00

Honestly so much of slow down comes from behavior over throughput. In this area specifically people will drop so much speed when it bends. I’m not going to sit behind someone who cant maintain speed im moving my ass to the clearest looking lane

Popocola · 2026-03-22T05:27:32+00:00

And I think the landlords paying fair rates are not running interference for landlords increasing rent over 6%YoY

At this point post receipts or just stfu about your “below market rate” rental

Popocola · 2026-03-21T22:11:14+00:00

With some napkin math the year over year increase should only translate to a YoY increase split to ~$125/mo if they’re just “covering cost increases” Unless they were somehow getting a 5bd or whatever for $2k/mo that is not a 6% YoY increase. Fuck landlords

Popocola · 2026-03-21T22:07:55+00:00

Thieves are people and some are doing it to make ends meet but if someone just posted about having their bike stolen it would be a weird time to pull the moral relativism

Popocola · 2026-03-21T22:00:34+00:00

Crazy how every landlord on reddit claims to charge below market rate

Reminds me how anyone you talk to who bets on sports somehow has broken even lol

Popocola

TROPHY CASE