(many thanks to David Amirault for the photos)

I had a post all lined up for today, but in the end, it didn’t feel right to go on with business as usual. To put it plainly, it’s been a rough season. It started with the death of Jamie Pierre at Snowbird in an early season slide. Then the snow stopped falling. Tahoe didn’t see a flake in December for the first time in decades.

As skiers around the world anticipated the a bright spot in the season, the start of the Winter X-Games, pioneer of women’s freeskiing, Sarah Burke, was tragically killed after a crash in mid-January.

Yesterday seemed like the proverbial “last straw”. In case you hadn’t heard, Chris Rudolph, the Marketing Director at Steven’s Pass, was killed in an avalanche yesterday. The entire group was incredibly experienced in the backcountry. It was an accident.

I didn’t know Chris as well as many of you. I had heard nothing but awesome things about him, both as a person and a marketer, and had looked forward to meeting him at Snowcial. In the end we only get a few seconds of small talk: a fact I regretted then, and regret even more now.

I barely knew Chris but it’s still a tough pill to swallow. That said, as this busy weekend wraps up, please keep your thoughts and prayers with Chris and his friends and family.

Rest in peace, Chris. You’ll be missed.