Lisa Watson, that you?

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.

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

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.

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.