"While some accidents are a result of not recognizing potential hazard, most occur because the victims either underestimate the hazard or overestimate their ability to deal with it." — Jill Fredston and Doug Fesler Snow Sense: A Guide to Evaluating Snow Avalanche Hazard
"Reaching the summit is optional. Getting down is mandatory." — Ed Viesturs
"When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other." — Eric Hoffer
"When I’m by myself, I’m very cautious. Add a trusted partner, and I’m willing to go places I probably wouldn’t before. Add a group of six people and a couple of attractive females, and I’ll do just about anything." — Bruce Tremper via Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"Every day, each of us is an accident trying not to happen." — Dale Atkins via Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"We construct an expected world because we can’t handle the complexity of the present one, and then process the information that fits the expected world, and find reasons to exclude the information that might contradict it." — Charles Perrow Normal Accidents
"'Does anyone not feel good about this' not 'are we all good with this'" — Sara Boilen NSAW 2020, "Your Brain is a Double Agent"
"All to go, one to no." — Sara Boilen NSAW 2020, "Your Brain is a Double Agent"
"[A whiteout is] not just snow but snow in a tantrum, snow angry at being used for too many pretty winter scenes in postcards and poems, snow proving it can be mean and serious." — Julia Alvarez via Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"If he underestimated the hazard, he was also vulnerable to overestimating his ability to deal with it. In this context, as Gonzales writes, 'the word "experienced" often refers to someone who’s gotten away with doing the wrong thing more frequently than others.' We think of experience as a classroom, yet it can also be a prison." — Jill Fredston and Laurence Gonzales Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"Automobile safety studies tell us that if we drive a mere two miles, we generally make four hundred observations and forty decisions. In the same stretch, we typically make one mistake—maybe we pull up too close to the car in front, or don’t stop fully at a stop sign, or forget to flick on the turn signal. Usually, the mistakes are inconsequential, and even if we notice them, they don’t seem to merit a moment’s reflection. If someone pulls out of a side road and cuts us off one morning, we tend to shake our fists and pretend that we would never be so 'stupid,' but most likely the day will come when we are in a hurry, or preoccupied, or exhausted, and we will do the same thing." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"With his ability came an unasked-for authority. He was looked to as a leader and often relied upon to make decisions about potential danger." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"The more intensely we want something, the more reasons we will likely find that make it okay." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"What we see often has more to do with what we have seen in the past or what we hope or expect to see than it does with what is staring us in the face." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, to imagine your facts is another." — John Burroughs
"In the inner workings of his brain, he had tagged it a happy, rewarding place. (Ali: the opposite is also true)" — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"The longer the time lag between taking a risk and feeling its consequences, the more likely we are to ignore the risk." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"The miracle was that each moment in our lives connected in a long chain to make a unique story, that it was all mystery, that we could shudder in the face of death and also laugh, that we could share burdens with each other, that a succulent could grow in a crack in the midst of all this stone and release oxygen in to the world so that I could live, that love remained waiting. There is wonder in noticing and contemplating and being a part of instead of separate from. In knowing that a thing, if done right, is filled with truth. I climbed. At the top of the wall was the start of my return to Michelle—another place to begin. Right here is also a place to begin, I thought." — Matt Spohn Alpinist Magazine, Issue 65, "Ground Up"
"The best thing about climbing with other women was we shared the lead. Most of my partners were guys who were stronger climbers than me, who liked to take me climbing, not just go climbing. But following was like being the passenger instead of the driver." — Jan Redford End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage, and Motherhood
"Women are invited to join the party at base and advanced base to assist in the cooking chores. Special rates are available. They will not be permitted to climb, however. … Women are not strong enough to carry heavy loads. And the high altitude—women aren’t emotionally stable enough to handle it." — Unknown Told to Arlene Blum when she asked to join a Denali expedition
