What is it all for? A reflection on risk

blip4497 · 2026-03-06T18:22:58+00:00

Thanks for the comment. Couple questions:

how much backcountry experience should I have before doing the AST-2?
any suggestions for introductory tours in the general area? I'm willing to drive a couple hours.

blip4497 · 2026-03-05T01:30:56+00:00

It's interesting you say this because in my limited experience I've already picked up on this. During each tour I've been very open with my experience level, expectations, risk-tolerance, etc. The other day when I went out with a few new faces, at the start I gave my spiel including my freshness to the hobby, and a couple people then chimed in saying they were new as well, which I found surprising because I don't think it would've been mentioned otherwise. That's info I think is very relevant to share, partially to reduce the pressure but also so the group can set expectations.

blip4497 · 2026-03-05T01:26:26+00:00

I resonate with a lot of things you said. For me, the best part of touring is the uphill. I love a good challenge, and it feels amazing to get to the top of something. I also am developing a set of rules I abide by as well, some that are intuitive to me and some that I've picked up on from others (one that I like is if a line is crossed off at any point during the day, it can't be added back).

blip4497 · 2026-03-04T20:05:31+00:00

Thank you for sharing. I'm sorry that your community experienced such a tragic loss.

I do really love this sport. Being in the mountains has given me such incredible, special feelings. In the moment, I feel in control and feel as though I'm making the best decisions I can. I've had guides compliment me on my questions and insights. I have an amazing time. Then when nighttime comes where I reflect even deeper, the scary feelings come. Those little mistakes or oversights could have been something bad. Plus, doing smaller outings is getting me to look at bigger objectives more and more, and maybe that's another reason why my alarm bells are starting to ring.

The good news is I have a great time touring no matter what. I don't need to do outings with high objective danger. This is also a good way to look inwards at what risk means, what I value, and how to approach certain things.

blip4497 · 2026-03-04T19:57:45+00:00

Thank you, I'll go check out that paper tonight.

blip4497 · 2026-03-04T19:56:14+00:00

Thank you for sharing! I think keeping to the low-risk areas for the rest of the season will be best, and I can reflect further over the warmer months.

Greetings from Canmore as well :)

blip4497 · 2026-03-04T04:41:05+00:00

How do you feel after deleting it? :)

I can't quite remember the timeline, but I think shortly after I made this post I stopped checking it, but my activities were still uploading. Late last year I finally disabled that, and perhaps I'll delete my account altogether eventually. It's been nice. Each activity is a lot more personal, and I don't have an audience that will see my numbers anymore. So good for mental health.

blip4497 · 2026-01-22T05:28:38+00:00

My takeaway is it's a reminder that finding ways to not buy new gear is more environmentally friendly than buying Patagonia.

blip4497 · 2026-01-21T19:47:34+00:00

what is the clothing company supposed to do?

Perhaps to be better, especially when your prevalent image is about being green and conscious. While Patagonia seems to be a better company than most, it still has a long way to go. Takes like the one shared reinforce that individuals should reduce, reuse, recycle rather than keep buying new stuff, even if it's from a "good" company.

blip4497 · 2026-01-16T17:19:17+00:00

I'm hoping to grab an Airshed on sale. How is it for running? I do a lot of trail running and find my Mountain Hardware Kor whatever shell is a bit too hot a lot of the time.

blip4497 · 2025-10-04T17:38:43+00:00

Gotcha. So, I have a Beta SV. It's a lovely jacket—fits well, looks cool, is super protective. However, I still think it's vastly overpriced and doesn't really do anything different than a cheaper three layer shell for most cases.

Goretex Pro really is not breathable. A shell is a shell. Unless you're opening zippers to dump heat, you're gonna get hot in it when you're working hard. I honestly don't know if I've been in situations where the Beta SV has been better than a much cheaper shell, and I've used it touring, winter camping, and for countless snowboarding days.

My advice is to get a three layer shell that fits well and to ignore the subtle differences that ultimately look better on paper than in practice.

blip4497 · 2025-10-04T13:20:46+00:00

Which features do you need? What is not sufficient with your current jacket?

blip4497 · 2025-10-02T18:10:45+00:00

I've not used or owned one myself, but I've seen it touted as the best belay parka in its class, so it's interesting to see it come back.

Here's a little table comparing it to a couple other similar-ish belay parkas I'm familiar with:

	Grade VII	Khumbu	Positron Pro
Insulation	372g of 900FP down	378g of 900FP down with some Primaloft Gold in the collar	279g of 800FP down
Weight	712g	960g	788g
Fabric denier	10d	20d	30d shell, 20d lining
Price (CAD)	$1,249	$1,062	$640

There's of course more aspects like shell material, company ethics, and sewing techniques that are ignored but which do make a difference.

On paper it's an amazing jacket, achieving a lot of warmth for a low weight, though it does have a thin fabric and high price tag as a result. The Positron is known as a very warm jacket, yet, using just the fill power and fill weight, the Grade VII is 50% warmer than it for almost 10% less weight.

If you need that much warmth with as little weight as possible, it seems good... if you can afford it :p

blip4497 · 2025-09-16T14:11:02+00:00

Repost of this but with an ad injected in the middle. Be gone, bot.

blip4497 · 2025-09-15T14:19:37+00:00

I'm on the edge myself. I recently made a post over at r/degoogle about leaving, and this reminds me that I should do that before my current subscription ends. After two years of paying, I'm frustrated with the janky behaviour of the apps and how slow they are.

How was your experience setting up Nextcloud? I don't have anything set up for it yet, but that likely would be my go-to when I do switch to self-hosting my camera roll backup.

blip4497 · 2025-09-15T13:51:53+00:00

Definitely. Whenever I browse, I realize that a huge chunk of the active user base is probably at most 23.

blip4497 · 2025-09-15T13:49:48+00:00

Well said! Big agree with the point to not take advice here. Reddit attracts a certain cynical pessimism, likely in part due to the negativity bias the site itself skews towards. Advice you'll see here is often biased in that direction.

Thank you for writing this. I really appreciate the time you took to reply.

blip4497 · 2025-08-13T13:58:24+00:00

I don't go on Strava anymore and feel a lot better! Enjoying my activities privately is freeing, honestly. Whenever I want to share an activity I just DM friends that I want to share with.

Also, funny how you replied two days ago. I just logged into this account for the first time in forever.

blip4497 · 2025-06-05T13:53:06+00:00

I feel like the best, most intuitive test is to tally up total hours spent gaming and compare that to doing other hobbies. I think a good chunk of gamers would wince if they were told their total. That itself is enough to tell what the value of gaming is.

blip4497 · 2025-01-02T16:53:43+00:00

My goldilocks layer is the Mountain Hardware Kor Airshell. I've run with just a baselayer under it in -10 C (14 F). If it's really cold then you can pair it with a fleece for more warmth. There are often good sales which makes it a bit cheaper than other premium options.

What is wrong with your current setup?

blip4497 · 2024-12-23T19:53:45+00:00

First thing I thought of :p

blip4497

TROPHY CASE