d i s t i n c t ly m o n ta n a • w i n t e r 2 0 1 5
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Doug
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If there is one thing I know about snow…
is that it can kill you.
No one knows that I have a secret pas-
sion for…shooting guns.
The time I've been most afraid for my
life…was in 2013 when I was hit with a barrage
of rock-fall on Pik Karl Marx in Tajikistan. It was
the only time in my life when I thought, "So
this is how it ends."
Avalanches are…job security.
Nothing in my life has surprised me
more than…my third divorce.
Being served a goat head for dinner in
Afghanistan has forever…made me ap-
preciate my college biology professor who
instructed us never to eat mammal
brains. There are lots of ugly and
nasty things living in brains. Who
knew?
Can anyone tell me why…
folks insist on skiing Saddle Peak
during a High avalanche danger?
If there is one thing I wish everyone
would know about avalanches…is that you
can trigger slopes far above while you are stand-
ing on flat ground. It seems impossible, but dur-
ing unstable conditions it most assuredly is not.
for me, winter in
montana is…better
than
winter in any other state. we've
got great snow, big mountains,
and no crowds.
Doug Chabot is the director of the Gallatin National Forest
Avalanche Center. From 1990-99 he worked as a ski patroller at Bridger
Bowl; in 1995 he began as an avalanche specialist. Also a mountain
guide and climber, Doug has been on (some route-breaking) expeditions
to Alaska, Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan. In 2011,
he co-founded Iqra Fund, a nonprofit for girls' education in northern
Pakistan. www.mtavalanche.com.
