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This isn't a conditions post, but it's a UT relevant post and mostly a rant.

At the bottom of this post is a link to an article about Bruce Tremper. In the fourth paragraph, I am the rider being called out for my bad behavior
Ironically, the word complacency appears in quotes shortly after the description of my sins and that is where I'd like to give the other side of the story that author Matt Hart and Tremper failed to take to account.

Bruce dug his pit smack dab in the middle of a gully mouth/run-out of an obvious line all unbeknownst to us from 1000' above. Yep, complacency.
As our party reached the bottom, two of our party went to Bruce and Matt's left where the snow was badly crusted, but missed dropping into his ill placed pit, or hitting he and Matt. And in doing so and didn't get scolded by Bruce. Being on a swallowtail and not wanting to get flipped by the crust, I went right to avoid my partners, Bruce's ill placed pit and he and Matt. This was on an embankment of perhaps 10' height, approximately 10' away from his pit, with the only terrain capable of sliding being the gully Bruce was directly in the mouth of, and blocking our descent.

Matt sensed the overreaction as he mentions in his article, but he plays it off as the wily veteran speaking gospel to dumb snowboarders (Dude I'm 48 years old, not some park kid). Truth is, Bruce didn't just overreact, he had no place opening his mouth at all, he was completely in the wrong. Both in terms of he and Matt's safety and in just plain being an asshole. He acted like a total Diva for no other reason than he got caught doing something dumb, and rather than realize his own folly and apologize he started shit with me.

With all due respect to Bruce's expertise, knowledge and all he does for us locals, he was 100% in the wrong. If he were to look at the broader situation it would be obvious. I took the high road that day and walked (snurfed) away. Hopefully he does the same next time he is compelled to drop the 'don't you know who I am' routine and start pissing up someone tree.

http://www.mountainonline.com/mountain-magazine/item/987-never-go-first

dude you should be stoked, you made it into an article!

but for real that day has left a bad taste in my mouth. I really have a hard time dealing with the fact that he yelled at you for very little reason, when he was digging a pit in the middle of an obvious run out zone that had a fresh skin track going up next to it. it is clear that someone(we) were in the drainage above and any slide would go directly through the run out zone he was digging his pit in. and the whole "i'm bruce tremper with the utah avalanche center..." speech was pretty fucking lame. oh well. fuck em. hey at least we raised over $2000 for the avalanche club and didn't receive as much as a thank you or any advertisement for the event either. go UAC

I guess berating people indiscriminately is one of the secrets to staying alive in avalanche country.

Staying professional in avalanche country? That’s a whole 'nother book.

ha, thanks for sharing...could've been worse...

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/Sh ... d=35670568

Indeed, " Hey don't ride above my pit / Hey don't climb above our lines". In all seriousness, I feel bad for Uli and the others. Bad behavior in the nature just sucks on any level.