Last night, a Jackson Hole Mountain Resort representative called to express her displeasure at my contention that resort officials were being “hush hush” about the Headwall avalanche yesterday morning.
This representative was particularly disappointed in my suggestion that Jerry Blann wasn’t being transparent enough about the event. I had made the point that back in ‘82, Tylenol was fully transparent about the circumstances of their famous cyanide scare, and Jerry Blann ought to consider this.
By mentioning that Blann ought to consider the Tylenol example, I certainly wasn’t suggesting that he was dishonest or elusive yesterday. I just think JHMR could have been less restrictive about details and images from the avalanche.
As it stands, the resort released two statements about the slide yesterday, one in the morning and one at 4 p.m. Here’s the afternoon release. Judge for yourself whether it sufficiently answers your questions about yesterday’s events. Wouldn’t you like to know how the slides were triggered, how many people were buried or partially buried in the slide, and how extensive the damages are?
To the best of my knowledge, the slide that partially buried four patrollers near the restaurant was triggered by a four pound charge taped to a piece of bamboo and stuck into the “white spider,” the steep pocket of snow just to the south of the top of the Headwall bootpack trail. One slide had already been triggered in the area; the second slide that caught the patrollers consisted of “hangfire” — snow that had not released in the first slide but was poised to do so.
Indisputably, Jerry Blann proved his mettle and concern for his employees yesterday. One of the buried patrollers reported that the very first person who came to his aid was a shovel-wielding Jerry Blann. As soon as the slide hit, the president of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort immediately threw himself into the task of digging out his men.
Also, as Jim Stanford said to me last night, “Jerry Blann has never backed down from a question.”
So it’s probably inaccurate to suggest that Blann was the one limiting information about the slide.
But somebody was. Because somebody requested that Steve Romeo remove his pictures of the slide debris in and around the restaurant from his website, TetonAT.com. These pictures are similar to the ones accompanying this post, which I pulled from tetongravity.com.
As a tax paying citizen, I ought to be allowed to view newsworthy pictures taken by a rescue volunteer in a public space on public land. The resort leases Rendezvous Mountain from the national forest service; is it allowable under their lease to invoke privacy rights limiting our viewing of news photos? Perhaps it is. I hope not.
More importantly, why would the resort want to? How is restricting photos going to endear JHMR to their customers and landowners? With the tragic death of David Nodine, and then this dramatic event, the employees of JHMR are under a lot of strain. The public has a lot of questions. (Between this site, TetonAT, and jhunderground, we had more than 15,000 page views yesterday, and today’s traffic is already humming.) Why complicate things by suppressing relevant images, releasing vague information, or covering up the top-of-Gondola webcam?
Thankfully, nobody was hurt yesterday, and it doesn’t seem the restaurant suffered more than superficial damage. This is little comfort to David Nodine’s friends and family, but at least there aren’t even more families in anguish. And of course, the Jackson Hole Ski Patrol deserve many, many thanks for trying to keep the mountain open and safe in such perilous conditions.
The resort is in an extremely tough spot right now, as they are buffeted by questions both about an inbounds avalanche fatality and the wisdom of putting buildings, lifts, and personnel in the way of a large slide path, notwithstanding how diligently the ski patrol try to reduce the avalanche hazard. There are lessons here for all of us, about personal responsibility, decision making, and respect for mother nature. As a friend recently pointed out, a mountain is still a mountain. Thinking you can control it or the news generated thereon shows hubris, which never ends well.
Two benefits to having photos from the Teton County Search and Rescue Team:
1. The photos, released with discretion, offer a window into the work these volunteers do on behalf of the public. The rescue on Glory last winter was pretty elaborate and went on all night. Would be nice to see how SAR pulled it off. The press can’t always get access to these incident scenes, and it may not be safe for them to travel there.
2. The photos illustrate the sometimes severe consequences of the decisions people make in the backcountry. Warnings from authorities aren’t nearly as effective.
The resort cannot muzzle someone who is not a resort employee.
It’s good p.r. for Search and Rescue, a publicly funded group of volunteers. The sheriff ought to be releasing these photos himself.
Well said David. By all means my concern is not with the patrollers doing the work- they are heros who should not feel slighted. It is the management pushing the buttons of the JHMR machine. Their lack of transparency is unacceptable. The attempts to manipulate others to comply with their agenda disgraceful.
Dick Cheney would be oh so proud.
Obviously they feel responsible and don’t want to take any blame for this mishap. I think accidents happen and standing up and telling it like it is makes you more trustworthy. Trying to hide photos as if they never happened only goes to show the extreme lack of confidence from Anna Olsen and her communications department.
Thanks for the post David. Well worded, as always. AS a non-Jackson resident, but a concerned member of the outdoor community, I rely on The Snaz, TetonAT, and other well run blogs for this very kind of information. It’s valuable well beyond the primary group of people it directly affects. And details about personal responsibility aside, your comments about transparency in general are spot on, and totally relevant for an event like this.
Thanks, David. I think you can control the news generated from the mountain…by being proactive and available.
Currently, it seems that the resort’s sensitivity to the potential liability issues are driving the outreach, or lack thereof. But there is a way to balance the media’s need for information with these legal concerns.
An initial press conference with a simple statement of facts and the announcement that there will be a second scheduled press conference later that day, or the next, with further details, clarifications and images with time for Q&A with J. Blann, Jake Elkins and others would initially appease the media’s appetite for access and information (and keep the rumor mill down to a dull roar).
It’s ok to say that you don’t know, that you don’t have all the information, yet, particularly when you are dealing with potential litigation issues that the resort has and anything you say can and will be used against you.
Wise words, Mike.
Please keep in mind TCSAR operates under the policy of the Sheriff’s office. That policy includes parameters about disclosing photos to the media, discussing rescues with the media, etc. All team members are familiar with this policy and have previously agreed to abide by these policies to be on the team. The TCSO and the TCSAR policies were not followed in tetonat’s posting and this is not a good thing for the team overall. Despite your wish to see the photos, their is alot more involved about it than just JHMR. It is also about how those photos were obtained, not by the public, but by another agency entrusted to the scene.
David, thanks to you and to Jim for addressing this issue.
The way I see it, the actions of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort management almost always come down to two issues that seem to appear in their eyes to be opposing but really are not: money versus community relations. The resort continually falls short in community relations by putting their bottom line between them and their local guests. From environmental issues to season passes to their relations with Wyoming Travel & Tourism to their handling of information during a crisis such as we have today, JHMR seems to make short-sighted decisions that only further estrange themselves from the Jackson Hole community instead of recognizing that this community is one of the most valuable assets they have.
From a Jackson Hole skier’s and backcountry user’s perspective, I want as much information as I can get. Specifics about the Headwall and other inbounds slides in particular and the snowpack in general are very valuable to all of us. The resort could reap a lot of good will by sharing that information with their guests. But rather, Mr. Blann, in one of his announcements yesterday, stated that that information is provided by the BTNF Avalanche Forecast Center. However, it seems like even between the Forecast Center and JHMR there is a considerable lack of communication between two entities that inhabit essentially the same space and share some of the same personnel. (Perhaps that information is shared, but we’re not seeing the depth we could in reports from either entity.) Valuable as well are those pictures posted here and on TetonAT for the visual message they send. But to request that they be removed from TetonAT is as much a disservice to the snow sliding public as it is reinforcement of JHMR’s bad PR image.
No doubt JHMR is in crisis mode. I don’t envy anyone’s position out there and I know that patrol is giving 110% right now. But the most important thing we need during a crisis is information, even if, as Mr. Geraci so astutely put it, the information you have is no information at the time. But as all of us in this field I will broadly describe as communications know, if you don’t provide a story for the public, they will make one up for you. And never have I seen the public make up a story that is flattering to the squelching body. And no, to answer your question, David, neither of the releases provided yesterday answered questions I have about what happened up there.
Sure, it’s easy to be critical from the sidelines and I try to give the benefit of the doubt where possible (especially since I believe JHMR management consists of good people who care about this community), but this is something I’ve felt strongly about for many years: Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is doing themselves a disservice by not spending as much time on community relations right here at home as they spend on press relations with vertical publications, on their brand image and on counting beans. I realize this is a small community for a resort of Jackson Hole’s size and that JHMR cannot rely on us to keep them in the black; it is a business after all. But the citizens of this community could be the Mountain Resort’s best ambassadors if they let us. I’m led to believe by the people I know who work there that JHMR management feels their community relations are positive. And I can see they are making an effort, but the reality is that they continually fall short on nearly every good intention and squander the opportunity to be the hometown hill that all the locals love. Yes, we love that mountain, but for the terrain and snow it provides, not for the way the corporation squeezes every penny out of us to ski there every year and then tells us what a privilege it is to do so.
But back to the point at hand, the stories here, at JHUnderground and at TetonAT continue to prove that information wants to be free. The public wants it and some version of it will get out. JHMR can leverage the community closeness such a crisis provides and be forthright with what they know when they know it or risk the dangers of miss-information.
Regarding Photos makes a very valid point and shows the issues are rarely black and white. I am not questioning the policies of TCSO or TCSAR, but I would ask the question in this instance, Does publishing those photographs help or harm the public, JHMR, TCSAR or any other entity involved in this incident?
Thanks, Chris. I think you just articulated a lot of people’s thoughts.
regarding photos might have a valid point about TCSAR policy, but it mis represents what happened here. JHMR and patrol were not happy that the photos were posted. The fact that the photo taker happened to be SAR gave them a convenient loophole to attempt to force their removal.
JHMR was not pressuring for removal of the photos out of some altruistic concern that SAR’s internal policies were not being followed to the letter.
Censorship and control of the spread of the images by JHMR was always the issue, minutiae of SAR policy a side show.
(a jh avy victim goes so heaven)
doorman of heaven: how did you die son?
victim: I was eating a prime rib in jhmr’s new five star restaurant ‘coulir’ and I choked on it when my entire body was suddenly covered by snow
I just read about this and what a shock but not really. – I mean who puts a pizza place and or a full structure in a slide path
Wasn’t there talk back then that the JHMR was thought to not have consulted with enough credible engineers and that anything up there was going to be a bad idea even to the armchair observer
I mean we used to joke about what a bad idea it was but food and beverage operations are high margin and return profit centers. The headwall was one of the best runs back in the day even before the gondola
No laughing matter rather as mentioned a slap of told you so. PAtrollers deserve a bonus
Why I Love jackson Hole, Reason #239: Where else would the raw adventure of avalanche survival seamlessly morph into a sophisticated short course on branding strategies?
Just like the other blogs, here you have a bunch of people that do not know what they are talking about throwing their 2 bit judgements everywhere. Romeo was not asked by any JHMR administrator to remove the photos, he was asked by a rescuer who was appalled by his efforts to capitalize on a tragedy. He made no journalistic effort to have accurate information. He posted pictures unethically. I hope he at least got a real pair of skis out of it.
Easy to paint JHMR as the Death Star. In fact, JHSP has been making extraordinary efforts to deal with an extremely unpredictable weak layer. If the reduction efforts have not been to your liking, feel free to head to the Pass and figure it our yourself. Jerry Blann was one of the very first rescuers on site, maybe he was a little too busy to hold a press conference for the gawkers.
If communication is your issue, keep in mind that people have been busy, and 90% of the media has never tried to contact the JHMR to get in depth info. It is no wonder they cleared JH News and Guide, they actually investigated and reported a real story instead of just spreading gossip and hard feelings amongst a stressed community. Maybe the print media still has something to offer after all.
Oh, perhaps you just want more information? Like this post the morning of the incident on the BTNF:
“Rapidly warming temperatures today have greatly increased the avalanche hazard. This rapid increase in temperatures is causing large volumes of snow to release from roofs in urban areas. It has also increased the avalanche danger in the backcountry which was already HIGH. This morning avalanche hazard reduction efforts at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort triggered an avalanche in the Headwall Area that damaged a restaurant and caught four ski patrollers. No one was harmed. Dangerous unstable conditions exist in the mountains and in urban areas. Travel in the backcountry is not recommended and extreme caution should used around buildings with large volumes of snow on their roofs……………….Morning Advisory………. Continued strong winds and dense snow with warming temperatures have created soft slabs to two feet in depth which rest over dense slabs up to six feet deep. Large, dangerous slides involving the new and old snow, will continue to be easily triggered, naturally and by backcountry travelers. On Saturday a skier died after being buried seven feet deep in the Toilet Bowl area of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort despite rapid recovery. At low elevations warm temperatures have increased the chance of slides in steep areas like road cuts and roof tops. TRAVEL IN AVALANCHE TERRAIN IS NOT RECOMMENDED.”
It is not info you want it is drama. And the bloggers have facilitated shit tons of it. Thanks for contributing.
I regret my too quick to reply resppnse the only thing more shameless than jhmr bashing would be the fact that rock of love will have a third season
Jhmr has been very good to me and bottom line besides hindsight etc is that slides happen and I should bever begrudge any party unjustly
Every rose has its thorn ugh
@ xoxo
Lisa Watson, that you?