Atlanta, Rockies Accident, Risk

I'm in Atlanta, Georgia for a couple of days, nice to see all the green grass and full spring. Spent this morning doing a talk for Dr. R. and the staff at the Atlanta Medical Center, and then toured the hospital a bit with Dr. R. Very interesting to see the "inside" of a hospital, there are a lot of very talented and dedicated people working very hard. I definitely felt a bit selfish--I climb and fly, write and teach, but these men and women are genuinely making a huge positive impact with each person wheeled through the doors. I generally only see hospitals when visiting friends there, it was educational, thanks to Dr. R. and his staff for the experience--one of the things I love about speaking is that I get to meet some very different people, I sometimes feel I'm the one who should be paying for the experience. I'm hooking up with some local paragliders and climbers for some activities later today in the Atlanta area, should be fun!

Risk:

Here's an interesting article on risk, it does a good job of explaining something I've felt but not clearly understood: People change their behaviour depending on perceived risk.

Another sad accident on Deltaform (near Lake Louise, Alberta)

There was a sad accident on Deltaform last week involving two climbers from the US. I had corresponded with one of them about Rockies conditions before they came up, then found out the man died a week later. Both partners succeeded on Deltaform but were caught in a bad slide on the way down. One climber somehow lived despite the slide, bad injuries and spending a couple of nights out with those injuries. I'm always sorry to hear of accidents in the Rockies, the emails asking for information were positive and showed the climber's excitment. Risk and reward, life and death, joy and pain, these pairs of experiences are so closely linked. The deceased sounds like a good guy just hitting his stride in the mountains, I wish his friends and family some peace. Spring snow conditions in the Rockies are dynamic and highly variable, play safe out there.

Workouts

Did the plane sit program yesterday, but it's been a good month, the rock fitness is coming back as well my lungs, spring just fires me right up every year.

Aviation and primates

The weather here in Canmore is incredible, blue splitter days with low winds, warm temps, perfect for all recreation. Hiked up Lady MacDonald, the local Canmore paragliding site, for the first the time yesterday, it's so good to get back into the air. Flying in these mountains is just so damn good when it's good, today also looks good, yeah!

Here's some humor for all you monkeys.

Workouts: Climbing lots, hiking up a big hill with a paraglider, running, even mountain biking finally. This time of year is great, all these new sports open up again, yeah!