On Episode 115 of Totally Deep Podcast, Doug Stenclik and Randy Young of www.cripplecreekbc.com bring you the lowdown on the world of uphill and backcountry skiing and boarding. Gear, technique, fashion, jargon, guests, and assorted spray from folks who know how to earn it in the backcountry. The world's best backcountry skiing podcast.
Our guest is Lou Dawson. Over decades, Dawson has become many things in the backcountry community: historian, gear nerd, pacesetter, and visionary. The first person to ski all of Colorado's 14ers, Dawson's backcountry forays are legendary.
Avalanche Dreams—A Memoir of Climbing and Life is Dawson's take on a life of mountains and family. He traces an adventurous throughline extending from Texas to the Roaring Fork Valley that ultimately finds a balance between adventure and creating community.
We discuss Dawson's rich life on the podcast. Join us for this excellent listen. If you want to read Dawson's memoir, you can find more information on his website linked here.
On Episode 115 of the Totally Deep Podcast:
- Roaring Fork Valley musings.
- Discussing the memoir and the art of transformation.
- The force that is Lisa Dawson.
- Death and the mountains, death and life.
- The pull of Highland Peak.
- Wooden skis and 12 pounds/foot.
Thanks for listening and joining us for the 2024-2025 season.
And remember: be safe out there.
More info about TDP at Totally Deep Podcast Blog on Cripplecreekbc.com.
Comments: info@cripplecreekbc.com.
Or leave a voicemail: 970-510-0450
Backcountry Skiing, Uphill Skiing, Rando (skimo?) Racing, Splitboarding, it's all uphill from here.
Audio Transcript of Episode 115: Lou Dawson's Avalanche Dreams
Randy (00:03)
Hello podcast listeners, you're listening to Totally Deep, Cripple Creek Backcountry's backcountry skiing podcast. I'm Randy Young.
Doug (00:11)
And I'm Doug Stenslick and it's time to elevate the levels.
Randy (00:15)
It is definitely time to elevate the levels. We are getting towards the tail end of summer. It's hot as shit in Texas. It sounds like it's a little nicer in Colorado.
Doug (00:28)
It is, it is, and we're definitely getting psyched. I'm coming off the Breck Epic, which we teased last time. It was a total ass kicking event for me. Yeah, yeah, I learned a lot. I had a blast. It is a very well organized event. It made me embarrassed of the events that I have organized for.
Randy (00:40)
tire kicking ass kicking
Doug (00:56)
ski mountaineering racing for the past dozen years to see what a well -supported athlete world could be. Yeah, it was just like an awesome time. Plenty of takeaways, plenty of stuff to learn. More importantly, psyched to be done racing. And it occurred to us the race ended on Friday.
that now every bike ride we go on and every hike and run is officially dry land training for skiing.
Randy (01:28)
How damn exciting. Yeah.
Doug (01:32)
So we did it, we made it through bike season. There's plenty of biking up ahead. We're doing a big sale at our shop for Labor Day, getting rid of all our demos and everything else. But most importantly, all these bike rides ahead are cross training and dry land training for skiing. And so to really kick it off, we're bringing back one of our most long time guests,
Randy (01:49)
Yeah. Yeah.
Doug (02:00)
A gentleman that did a ton to help us get our start at Cripple Creek Backcountry and a really good friend, Lou Dawson, is coming on the podcast today and he is here to talk about his new book, Avalanche Dreams. And Randy, what'd you think of it?
Randy (02:18)
I think for pretty much any of our listeners that are that are in the mountains or wishing they were in the mountains like me Pick up the book go and get the book and read the book, you know, it made me Even though it's a completely different generation in different time. It just made me kind of re -experience the joy I personally felt when when when Doug you and I were young guys
fumbling around in the mountains, you know, but having like great epic adventures and things that you'll you know, we'll never forget and Through podcasts in business Yeah, I I just thoroughly enjoyed it and I think so many of our listeners will also thoroughly enjoy it
Doug (02:48)
Hahaha
Now we're middle -aged guys bumbling our way through the mountains.
Yeah, for those of you that don't know Lou, we're gonna link in the show notes the several episodes he's been on in the past so you can really get to know him. He was the first guy to ski all the 14ers in Colorado. He was the creator, founder and editor of Wild Snow, which was the premier website that educated Randy and I into our bumbling.
Randy (03:38)
Yeah.
Doug (03:40)
You know, he wrote the book Wild Snow, which is the first history of ski mountaineering. He wrote the light tours of Colorado, which is one of the Beacon Guide books that we sell the most of in the shop. And I think it's like an inspiration that shows the changing risk tolerance throughout for the guy that wrote the book on extreme skiing to then say, hey, here's a bunch of excellent tours in Colorado you can do without ever risking your life.
it's like our favorite thing to include with anybody that is buying their first ski touring setup that Lou and maybe Randy and I may have made that decision to hang it out there a few too many times, but you don't have to. And to take it full circle, this is Avalanche Dreams. It's Lou Dawson's memoir, and it covers everything from skiing in Aspen in the early days of ski mountaineering in Colorado through
his trips to Yosemite as a rock climber, skiing the Four Teeners, skiing Denali to being a father and living life in Carbondale. And it was a great read. We're super excited to have him on. And I hope you enjoy the interview with Lou Dawson.
How was that intro?
Louis Dawson (05:07)
Sounded pretty good to me.
Doug (02:38.454)
Well, Lou, thanks for coming on again.
Louis Dawson (02:42.365)
you're welcome. I was excited about this. I don't know how many podcasts it has been, but it's...
Doug (02:50.296)
think this is going to be our fourth one together. Randy, you check the records for that?
Randy (02:53.931)
Yeah, I mean, I was gonna guess four or five. So, continue to be our leading guest, which we feel very lucky about.
Louis Dawson (02:59.07)
Yeah, and we've...
Well, it's an honor and we've really covered a lot of subjects too as my recollection. So that's been pretty cool.
Doug (03:10.99)
And we're gonna get deep into it today for sure. I guess first let's say it's August 22nd right now. This is episode 115 if you can believe that. And we're in the, as Randy was pointing out, the very hot month of August. But the weather here has been changing. I don't know if you feel it, Lou.
It was a rainy, rainy night, maybe record raining for the summer. I don't know, it's, Sopras is almost clear out my window. So we'll see if we see any light dustings on top, which I think we've already seen from town, right? At least we saw it on chair a couple of ago.
Louis Dawson (03:58.771)
Yeah, I like this time of year because it feels hot outside here, but you get a little breeze and you can kind of feel this sort of hint of winter on the breeze.
you start thinking, hmm, you know, maybe we will get some snow this year.
Doug (04:12.898)
And.
Doug (04:18.347)
Well.
Randy (04:18.383)
I'm really jealous. All I get is a hint of more heat.
Doug (04:22.734)
We'll get you up here, Randy. We'll get you some cool Thames. know, Lou, we're here to talk about the book Avalanche Dreams today, but I have a story that's close to home going into some of the through lines of fatherhood and such in the book. I think I barely mentioned this to you at coffee the other day. I went backpacking up to Yule Pass.
Louis Dawson (04:23.207)
Ha ha ha.
Louis Dawson (04:27.687)
Yeah.
Doug (04:52.758)
on Monday night, which was pretty recent. That's obviously a very special valley to all of us here. we were hiking up, nobody is on the Yule, like the marble side of Yule Pass. In fact, that trail is pretty hard to follow in many places. And you get up over the crest there and then
Randy (05:15.407)
Hehehehe
Louis Dawson (05:16.659)
That's what I've heard.
Doug (05:22.408)
from the Crested Buttes side, it's like a highway, right?
Louis Dawson (05:26.003)
yeah, I mean you can pretty much jeep up to Eulpass. I mean not quite, but where you park at Paradise Divide, you're just looking right up at it.
Doug (05:36.012)
So we went from like dipping in the river with nobody around, not seeing anybody. And then as soon as we crested to have a snack before hiking back to the Marble Side, we heard voices coming at us already. And I'll be dang that it was a father daughter with skis on their back. Yeah. I guess this was August 19th.
Louis Dawson (05:47.773)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (05:56.327)
What?
Randy (05:56.656)
Hahaha
Doug (06:02.446)
So they had their skis on their back and I was like, man, are we lucky to run into these two? And Menace and I are just sitting there like watching and this girl must have been, I would put her on 13 years old, like so excited to be up there. They had a little pootily like dog that was so excited to see snow and right, I guess it'd be purple mountain right there, right? On the right side as we look at Yule Pass.
Randy (06:08.354)
Yeah.
Randy (06:21.758)
Hehehe.
Louis Dawson (06:22.066)
that's pretty cool.
Louis Dawson (06:28.945)
Yeah, pretty much.
Doug (06:31.12)
and so they were skiing a snowfield on the north side of Purple.
Louis Dawson (06:34.279)
Yeah, I've heard, yeah, I know that's a place the Crested Butte folks, there's something there that they do for turns all year type activities.
Randy (06:35.885)
How cool.
Doug (06:44.514)
I know, I wish I would have gotten to interview the girl. So if her dad's listening to this, feel free to email in and tell us how many months she has going straight. But you know, the candid camera, candid microphone conversation we overheard was her telling her dad like, yeah, and I want you to wear my garment this year for the Grand Traverse. And her dad's like, yeah? She's like, yeah, yeah, so I can track you all night long.
Louis Dawson (06:52.434)
Yeah.
Randy (06:55.108)
Hehehe
Doug (07:14.126)
And I just felt like that was such like a special moment to crest over the ridge. And then we said hello. They just kind of got right to business. The dog was freaking out when it hit the snow and we watched him get their boots on and make, I'd say they squeeze 25 -ish turns on the snowfield. Yeah, it was pretty inspiring to be up there and to see like another
Louis Dawson (07:34.781)
That's awesome.
Randy (07:36.035)
That's so awesome.
Doug (07:43.106)
father sharing skiing with his daughter and yeah just just a pretty cool moment to be about and I couldn't think of a better story to segue into your Avalanche Dreams memoir that you know just came out in the spring then we hit some hot months of summer and we're excited to be here to launch again your book coming into the fall.
Louis Dawson (07:47.123)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (08:01.907)
Mm -hmm.
Louis Dawson (08:05.896)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (08:12.403)
That's right. Yeah. I'm kind of doing a second book launch, you know, informally, but the first one stuttered a bit because I was new to the game of paper and ink publishing, you know, and of course being the sort of overconfident in my general approach to life. you know.
Doug (08:17.495)
You
Randy (08:18.434)
Hehehehehe
Doug (08:33.07)
Well, and I think you did that and and I think you did that intentionally too, which was one of the reasons you launched in spring was to like get the kinks out so we could hit fall 24 on the ground running and yeah, we're just really excited to intro it and like I said, the you know, the book pivots around the Aspen Valley and really crestabute so to be
Randy (08:33.106)
Hehehehehe
Louis Dawson (08:36.443)
I got in over my head.
Louis Dawson (08:44.881)
Yes.
Louis Dawson (08:48.403)
That's right.
Louis Dawson (09:00.38)
That's right.
Doug (09:01.324)
to be on the pass looking into both sides of the elk. The elks leading into this interview was, I thought it was pretty cool and it brought me very much back to the place, to the scene of the crime or crimes. And yeah, really enjoyed the book. So thanks for putting it together and I've been part of the process for many years.
Louis Dawson (09:17.403)
Yeah. Yeah.
Louis Dawson (09:28.595)
Yeah, yeah, you've seen me since since 2017. I've been in here going, well, I'm working on the book right now.
Doug (09:30.698)
and
Yeah.
Doug (09:42.508)
Yeah, he didn't even have time to play music.
Louis Dawson (09:46.077)
Yeah.
Doug (09:48.812)
Never quite as much time for music as there should be. Yeah, then Manasa, my wife, was one of your early readers on the book, and she really appreciates the credit in there.
Louis Dawson (09:52.936)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (09:58.503)
Yeah, and she was an editor. So she did some really skillful work with helping sort of shape the narrative, let's say, from my sort of scatterbrained way too many words type approach, which, you know, pretty normal for a discovery writer like me is, you know,
writing from the seat of their pants, stand up with way too many pages, and then sometimes you need help to figure out where your focus really is. And I think we pulled that off pretty good. I'm happy about it.
Randy (10:39.983)
I would say so, yeah. Doug brought up Crested Butte. That was one of the many surprises to me in the book, Lou, is I didn't realize that your mom and eventually your dad had moved over to Crested Butte from Aspen and how much time you spent over there. There were quite a few other surprises in the book to me.
Louis Dawson (10:56.253)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (11:04.952)
Ha ha.
Randy (11:07.491)
But I guess I don't know if you want to give like a brief intro to our listeners about the book and, you know, sort of how it came to be.
Louis Dawson (11:18.983)
Well, it's what you'd call a braided memoir. In other words, it has more than one or two specific themes. It has a handful. I wouldn't want to say how many exactly, but it kind of covers the gamut from real hardcore adventure stories, what we call me and Joe tales, where you get out with your buddy and risk your ass.
Randy (11:45.279)
Yeah, yep
Louis Dawson (11:47.023)
all the way to family stories about all the way from from wondering as a young man how I would ever have a family all the way to meeting my wife Lisa and and creating a family and all the stuff in between. So it kind of goes those different directions but it's all tied together with the mountaineering and the love of the mountains and the hills and
And then because there's a transformation theme as well, it's all about how a person who's in transformation for their whole lives, how their approach to the mountains changes according to kind of where they're at in life and what they're up to and their motivations, not to mention maturity or lack thereof, which...
You know, in memoir writing, when you're a memoirist and you cover your younger days, usually you can just use your lack of common sense to flesh things out, which I definitely did.
Randy (12:57.361)
Yep.
Doug (13:00.664)
Well, and I think most people that listen to this podcast would agree with me that that was probably the most, the early chapters, the young Lou was probably the most relatable part for me. And, and it.
Louis Dawson (13:15.027)
Yeah, well, of course, you need another 20 years for the older parts.
Doug (13:20.686)
Right. Well, and you know, we'll leave undisclosed exactly how many decades separate your teenage years with my teenage years. But I was amazed by how relatable it was from, know, it's almost I look at my nephews, how they want to be astronauts right now.
Randy (13:21.156)
You
Louis Dawson (13:33.202)
You
Louis Dawson (13:46.152)
Mm
Doug (13:46.478)
which is what I of course wanted to be when I was 10 years old. And now they want to be it. And I think like the mountain climber might come a few years later when people start discovering those books. And I distinctly remember that period in my life where I was like, no, I'm going to grab this crappy sleeping bag.
Louis Dawson (13:56.145)
Yeah.
Doug (14:07.17)
this leaky tent and I'm just gonna go out there and figure it out. And I think you really capture those moments in the early years really well and in a really relatable way. And it brought me back to thinking about the Adirondacks, which were my New York version of the Elks and how I would get up there every chance I could to suffer through another damp and perhaps life -threatening weekend of hypothermia.
Louis Dawson (14:25.863)
Yeah.
Doug (14:34.931)
to figure out the mountains.
Louis Dawson (14:36.615)
Yeah, to fill your listeners in who have not read the book. Yeah, instead of wanting to be an astronaut when I was in those early kind of teen to preteen, I discovered my father's collection of Mountaineering literature and books. And somehow that just resonated with me like you can't believe. all I wanted to do was be a climber on a Mountaineer.
even though we lived in Texas outside of Dallas. So that's kind of where that whole mountaineering thing began for me. And I always was true to that motivation. mean, throughout hard years and hard times and...
times of poor decisions and things like that, I still, I really wanted to be in the mountains and do mountaineering, so to speak, whether it was climbing or ski touring or just plain backpacking or even wilderness fishing. To me, that's all mountaineering.
Doug (15:40.152)
So to get into like.
Randy (15:40.609)
Yeah, and that was another surprise of the book is that your story started in Texas, which was totally wild to me. I don't know that I ever, ever would have guessed that. Yeah.
Louis Dawson (15:46.662)
Yeah
Louis Dawson (15:52.423)
Yeah, yeah.
Doug (15:55.672)
So to get into a little bit of the deeper questions I have for you, because obviously we want people to buy the book and read the book to get the full story, great Christmas presents for the whole family. what it reminded me of there is it actually coincided with a nasty
Louis Dawson (16:07.109)
Or buy several books, please.
Randy (16:09.337)
Yeah.
Doug (16:23.372)
YouTube comment I got on one of my videos this week, which alluded to people, to trust funders buying their way into the back country. And this anonymous commenter, which I know you know all too well from your Wild Snow days, really didn't like the idea of people getting into sports with correct equipment.
So there is this like mystique that so many people have the shared history of getting in with whatever they could find, hand -me -downs from their parents, stuff that maybe wasn't exactly purpose -built.
I guess you saw like two sides of it because obviously you got into it, but then you had the Knowles days where you were an educator and hopefully equipping people more responsibly. Do you think you can shortcut the hardship of poor planning and survival or or do you think that's part of it?
Louis Dawson (17:28.327)
Yeah, I think you just look at it logically. mean, if you are very careful and say, engage the services of guides and things like that, you can shortcut a lot of that formative stuff. You know, it's going to be a different experience. The person who goes out and kind of does it on their own and learns through the school of hard knocks, they get a different set of...
satisfactions and results than the person who decides to approach the sport in a more measured, safer way, let's say. I think they're both valid approaches, especially nowadays. Now, there was a time in rock climbing and ski mountaineering, which for me, especially like when I was in my 20s, there was definitely a feeling that the poser, let's say, so to speak,
was somehow inauthentic. And, you know, I think that's still true sometimes. I mean, you do get people who just basically don't even understand what they're getting into and they just want to call themselves a climber or a ski mountaineer. But because there's so much better communication these days, I think people have a much better idea of what it really means to go be, let's say, go ski touring, you know.
They see it on YouTube and they see people skiing down this stuff and they kind of, you know, they know they can't go in whatever social situation and say, I'm a ski mountaineer, you know, or I'm a climber without at least measuring up to some degree. I think they used to be able to get away with that a little bit easier. You know, I don't know.
Doug (19:10.072)
Yeah.
Randy (19:13.583)
I don't know. I think if we hung around some bars in Denver, we might overhear some suspicious comments.
Louis Dawson (19:23.813)
Yeah, maybe. I mean, I might be too kind, but I think there is two, there's definitely two sides to this. know, there's the person who really dedicates their whole life to these Alpine sports and they really, you know, sometimes have a really deep and broad view of what they're participating in all the way.
down from the sort of meditative spiritual side of things down to the athleticism. then you have the other side where people just, know, indeed they come to Cripple Creek back country and buy a pair of skis and bindings and they hire a guide and they go out for a few days and they've done it. And then they move on to go skydiving or something. you know, so it's definitely kind of two approaches.
Doug (20:13.322)
Yeah.
Doug (20:19.352)
Yeah, to speak again on this ULpass experience, it was something I really needed, because I've always, and as any listener knows, gone the very race heavy and competitive side of, even in my climbing days, I was chasing grades and always really concerned about that. That gave way to...
skiing and ski -mo racing and lately it's been mountain bike racing but after this last Breck epic trip which you know we'll cover in maybe the outro to not distract from Lou's book I needed like more of the spiritual side of the mountains and I forgot how pleasant and it was more than just accidental spirituality in the mountains it was like very purposeful
It's like, I'm gonna go backpacking with my wife and focus on not pursuing an active goal. We're not gonna climb treasure, even though it's right there. We're just hiking to a pass and back. And if we don't get to the pass, that's fine. And I guess that I really appreciated the grounding force Lisa was in the book to you. And how much was her?
Louis Dawson (21:10.077)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (21:34.673)
Yeah, yeah.
Doug (21:40.084)
influence on type one fun in the mountains to you. Do you think you would have ever found type one mountains without Lisa?
Randy (21:43.815)
Okay
Louis Dawson (21:47.827)
I don't know, but you know, was definitely the influence on that because, know, what you're talking about is like what John Muir said, go to the mountains and get their good tidings. You know, maybe he meant going and doing a rock climb, but, you know, the general consensus, I think, is he meant just enjoying wilderness. And, you know, like you're talking about, where you just kind of get this, as they say, and
sort of the European dialects, you know, going into the nature. You know, there's sort of this separation of you're in your house or in your town and you're not really quite in the nature. You're not feeling this feeling of fulfillment you get from it. Maybe you can try to get that from going into a garden or something like that, but there's, it's really, I don't think there's a substitute for going into an actual.
bonafide wilderness and experiencing that. you know, and then without those those sort of being ultra goal oriented or doing something that's more extreme athletically. And and yeah, I think when I married Lisa, I was already well, you know, my background because of being involved as a as a mountain guide and and a NOLS instructor and an outward bound instructor.
I actually had been exposed to that idea, you know, where the wilderness and nature have these things to offer, and you don't have to do anything extreme to experience those rewards. But so when I met her and I was courting her and...
eventually married and this and that. I was already thinking that way. I was thinking, know, I'm to do this stuff with my wife because it's wonderful and I know she'll love it. But I know it doesn't have to be hardcore, you know, and I don't. And I mentioned in the book that I I wasn't into this kind of resume dating, which you see people do in different arenas, whether it's finance or
Louis Dawson (24:01.395)
mountaineering or whatever. It's like, my girlfriend climbs, you know, 512, you know, and then you don't say anything else about her, you know, it's like, well, is she nice? You know, is she generous? And it always makes me laugh. And not that I haven't had my days of resume dating myself, but in any case, you know, when I
Randy (24:11.769)
Hehehehe. Hehehehe. Hehehehe.
Louis Dawson (24:29.939)
grew up a little bit and met Lisa and stuff. I realized we could do all this wonderful stuff and it didn't have to be about these big goals. And nothing wrong with the goals either. I I went on to end up skiing, climbing and skiing Denali with my son, Louie in 2010. And I was very goal oriented on that trip. You even though I was, I...
I'd repeated over and over to myself that, you know, be careful, don't get too goal -oriented and go kill yourself trying to get to the summit when it's not appropriate. But on the other hand, you know, it was definitely more on the goal side of things to have that goal -oriented experience.
Doug (25:11.392)
I the
Randy (25:11.575)
And Lou, that was kind of one of the interesting things in reading the memoir was just how
Much you kind of were pulled in the in two directions of being very very goal oriented but also Quickly becoming hyper aware of keeping yourself safe And it just It it's not I I just don't feel like that's that common of an experience Maybe maybe it is maybe just not as many people have shared it as publicly as you have
Louis Dawson (25:38.429)
Yeah.
Randy (25:52.067)
But why do you like, where do you think that came from? How do you think that was, that became such a strong part of you and your mountaineering career?
Louis Dawson (26:04.027)
I'm just more fearful than other people. I don't know, Randy. I know that's a subtext in the book. It definitely was part of my life for years. was sort of the struggle between being, well, like I would say when I was younger, in my early 20s, I would say things like, I'm going to climb until I die.
You know, and I meant it. I was just going to go out there and climb the hardest, most dangerous things and also do dangerous rock climbing leads, which, you know, in those days we did a lot of runouts that were, you know, one little slip and you were either broken, badly broken or gone, which, and of course climbing changed pretty radically over the years where it's a lot safer.
Randy (26:33.332)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Randy (26:48.057)
Yikes.
Randy (26:55.161)
Mm -hmm.
Louis Dawson (27:01.735)
with sport climbing. But in any case, you know, I would do that kind of stuff. But I, but I never was was all in on, you know, just throwing caution completely away and not feeling any fear. And, you know, at the at the least, in the most basic sense, to answer your question, you know, I was I, I really was I had my own
Randy (27:17.932)
Mm
Louis Dawson (27:32.093)
component of fear as well as boldness. And the two things were in tension a lot of times. I guess what you try to do is balance those two things. It's like, you know, Paul Petzl would say that, you know, judgment is a combination of fear and knowledge, you know. And so you try to live up to that ideal, but, you know, it was difficult.
Randy (27:35.448)
Mm -hmm.
Louis Dawson (28:04.517)
I don't know.
Randy (28:05.719)
Yeah. Yeah, I could really certainly appreciate that. And I guess it also made me think a lot about as you, kind of started to watch Louie, your son get into these activities and how, how you, how you navigated that and sort of trying to impart that same wisdom. Because on the one hand, you, know, all the joy you got from doing some of these risky activities and you want him to.
embrace and have that joy, but on the other hand, you're a father and you don't want to see anything happen to him and how, you know, what that experience is like.
Louis Dawson (28:41.511)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (28:46.045)
Yeah, I think that when you're raising a child in a mountain town and they're doing alpine sports, that definitely embodies the issue because you see it from the outside, inside outside, only with some, you your loved one. And then you start thinking, well, how worthwhile is this stuff?
Randy (29:04.11)
Mm -hmm.
Louis Dawson (29:13.007)
Even though it's fun and bring some joy and there's a lifestyle and all that. you you know and each person has their own answers for that question. I don't think there's any any. Right or wrong answer. Each family and each parent does does what they think is appropriate and hopefully we all think it through and don't just blunder along and not think about it. But and you know it was definitely.
I think, you I was in a little bit of denial at first when we first had our son and I didn't even, didn't, I just kind of assumed that we would all, our family would participate in these sports. And I, you know, I remember putting some thought into it, but then as the child became a teenager, then I really, you know, started looking at the whole picture and thinking, well, what's appropriate and what isn't.
And I think maybe that's because when a child becomes a teenager, that's when they start forging ahead and going their own way and taking some risks. And whether it's driving too fast or skiing avalanche terrain, if you're a responsible and loving parent, you watch that and you're trying to guide the child as best you can and help them make decisions and maybe even do some role modeling.
Randy (30:40.803)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, which you certainly have done, so I imagine that served Louie quite well.
Louis Dawson (30:44.413)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (30:48.903)
Yeah, I hope so.
Randy (30:50.457)
You
Doug (30:52.65)
So I'd say like another big presence in the book is your father. Lots of, you know, there's the early chapters where you're obviously living underneath him or with him and then it comes up again and again that alluding back to finding the books and your your father's adventurous spirit. He was a pretty wild guy.
Louis Dawson (30:59.282)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (31:19.409)
Yeah, he was. know, of course, like any human being, he was multifaceted. You know, was a. He had some different phases with her family, you know, at first he's he, of course, introduced me and some of my buddies to Alpine hiking and Colorado camping trips and things like that. And he was he was a wonderful man at that time, really enjoyed.
just being out in the woods and that sort of thing. And then, you know, our family life deteriorated after that. Around the time I reached my late teens and turned 20. And things got tough, more for my younger brothers than for me, but it was tough for me too. you know, the book gets into it, but just to let people know that haven't read it.
that my parents kind of embarked on the hippie lifestyle, let's call it, and which, you know, involves some drug consumption and sort of experimenting with a life of sort of letting things go and not taking as much responsibility for things. which, you know, for a child, it was hard to have a parent like that because they don't make a very good role model. And there's a lot of insecurity and
you know, wondering what you're supposed to be doing as opposed to what you see. And, you know, I'll kind of leave it at that because the book gets into a little more grim stuff I don't really want to talk about right now. you know, a lot of it got worked out. My brothers, I have three brothers and they're all wonderful guys and very accomplished. And
you know, things turned out okay for me. you know, I realized years later after going through all this turmoil with my climbing career that I was a lot more immature than I realized and kind of almost, I thought emotionally maybe even stunted a little bit. And because of this whole situation and it made the climbing really difficult for me because I was...
Doug (33:41.699)
Whoa.
Louis Dawson (33:46.201)
really impulsive. Like I didn't, I just didn't, never felt called to really do much work with planning. And that's so I'd get together with these other climbers like Michael Kennedy or Don Peterson or Ray Jardine who were much more mature and better planners. So they could, I could kind of latch onto them and use my athletic skills and basically just, they could just kind of point.
you know, Lou, climb that. And, you know, was good at the climbing part of it. But, you know, one of the things that happens when you're a memoirist is you have a lot of insights into your own life. And that's one of the things I really started realizing was there was a lot of that going on in those days that I...
Doug (34:19.246)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (34:40.475)
of course, had never really thought about. But I'd always wondered why I'd had this kind of six or seven year climbing career where I'd gotten pretty good and then sort of just, I didn't quit, but I just segued over to ski touring and mountain biking and that sort of thing and didn't really keep pursuing the climbing.
And some of my buddies in those days, once in a while, they'd actually ask me, they'd go, well, Lou, do you still rock climb? And I did casually now and then, but I would tell them, I'd say, I just don't. I get out and do an easy guide -like climb with Lisa or Louie when they asked me to, but I'd gotten.
Doug (35:25.762)
I think one of my favorite metaphors for that in the book is when your dad bought the piece of property over in Crested Butte and he was living in a leaky truck camper and you were asking if your life wasn't a leaky truck camper of you considering in your 50s going to Denali to...
Louis Dawson (35:38.077)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (35:44.077)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (35:49.127)
Well, know, any good any good male memoirs always got the father in there. And, you know, there's the son is usually more or less less different from the father than they are identical. Let's put it that way. You know, there's a lot of the father and the son. And, you know, I was I was really, you know, I was just screwing around and, you know, ended up.
Doug (35:54.798)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (36:17.095)
going up and breaking my leg really badly and on the backside of the ski mountain and having to get rescued and, you know, emotionally was not all there. And yeah, my father was not doing that well at the time either. And I thought I was far superior and it wasn't until at least a little, I'd seen him in the...
kind of camping out on some property he'd bought. And then I started looking at my own life and I thought I was so together and then I realized, well, now wait a minute, maybe I'm not so together. And that's the metaphorically you're talking about, because I'd seen him in this kind of leaky roof pickup truck camper and I thought, well, actually what's so different about my life when I'm just.
dinking around with this climbing career. not going anywhere. So far, so on.
Randy (37:17.945)
Heh heh.
Doug (37:19.286)
I think it's insight we all get every time you think you have it together. It's never as together as you thought it was. And then you step back to look at your life from that disembodied viewpoint. It's easy to feel that way.
Louis Dawson (37:25.554)
Ha
Louis Dawson (37:36.083)
Yeah, can imagine what it's like. Yeah, you can imagine what it's like working on a memoir, because you, I mean, you've got years of looking at this stuff and your job is to look at it and and basically perfect the examined life, you know, and otherwise you won't be able to write the memoir. And as you lead the process of the examined life, you
all this stuff pops up, mean endlessly, and you never know, I mean real surprises, which you know, I don't really want to get into any examples of that because some of it's kind of embarrassing, but you know it, you know really gets you.
Doug (38:20.686)
You got over 300 pages of examples. Yeah, that's true.
Randy (38:23.683)
Hehehehehe
Louis Dawson (38:24.275)
Yeah, exactly. The stuff I was willing to share. But you know, it makes you really respect the good memoirists out there. And you look at their book and then you realize what went into it. And it's not child's play. And all the way along is leading the examined life and writing a book that does that process.
You know, the other component of that is you're attempting to do something where there's some takeaways for other people. Otherwise, you're just writing a journal and stick it on your bookshelf and read it when you're on your deathbed or something. you know, I was very intentional about attempting to have some takeaways for people who read the book. And whether I pulled that off, that's up to the readers.
You know, to me that was really important.
Doug (39:26.016)
So another through line through the whole book is death and near -death experiences, which...
Louis Dawson (39:33.543)
Yeah.
Doug (39:36.056)
You know, I think many of us have more than we know. Maybe it was your, your self -reflection that led you to being able to write about some of these in that way. A lot of times we might just scrub it from the record because, you know, even just skiing in avalanche terrain is, is a near death experience. Even if nothing happens, you don't have to break your leg. And, yeah, I just, I'm wondering how that
Louis Dawson (39:39.502)
Hahaha
Louis Dawson (39:46.482)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (40:00.284)
Right.
Doug (40:05.576)
shaped you as a person. It's certainly shaping me currently and we've obviously had a lot of talks in private about that as we experience death in the mountains each time. Do those have to go hand in hand, death in the mountains?
Louis Dawson (40:21.063)
Yeah, I'm, you know, death and life go hand in hand. So I think, I mean, that would be my philosophical point of view is sure. Mountaineering maybe is a little more dangerous than commuting to work or, you know, being a trader in Manhattan or something. But, you know, all those things have their risks, emotional, if not physical heart disease, whatnot, you know, stress.
Doug (40:26.914)
That's fair.
Louis Dawson (40:52.387)
problems with stress and shortened lives. But you know, it's funny, I was thinking while you were asking that, because they say that if you've been struck by lightning, you don't know it unless somebody witnessed it. And yeah, well, that's what they say.
Doug (41:05.464)
Is that true? I guess you probably knocked unconscious and just come to and wonder what happened.
Randy (41:08.751)
Yeah, yeah that seems like for the for the best yeah
Louis Dawson (41:10.803)
Yeah, you just wake up, you know, and you're like, the the thunderclouds gone. And, know, that was weird. But I don't know what happened. But I'm OK now. You know, what's that burn mark on my foot? You know, but I guess where I'm going with that is, you know, you can have these near death experiences and they don't register. In other words, you're experiencing denial. And.
Doug (41:25.112)
Hahaha
Louis Dawson (41:40.829)
question is each person I think has their their quota of of those experiences and then the amount of denial they're going to apply to them and each person just has to examine what's going on in their lives according accordingly and I don't think I have any you know superior opinions about that or any any ability to
handle that any more than anybody else, but I have put a lot of thought into what's appropriate and I've reached my own, you know, kind of conclusions about what is appropriate over the years, you know, after I grew up a little bit. At first, I didn't ever think about that. It was just like, yeah, man, you know, live to climb another day.
Doug (42:32.844)
I'm doing it all right.
Louis Dawson (42:39.633)
I don't know, was rambling a little bit on that question, but you know.
Doug (42:39.65)
Alright.
Doug (42:44.514)
Well...
Another topic that I wonder about is when Randy and I moved to the mountains. I don't know if we've ever really gotten into our full origin story of knowing each other. But when we moved up here, we were snowboarders desperately wanting to get into the backcountry. And we kind of met two kinds of people at the time. And it was...
you know, cool guys that would show us a little bit and swear us to secrecy because these were, you know, secret powder stashes and no one else was invited into the sport. I call them kind of gatekeepers now. Or you could be the mentor, which is welcoming someone with shared interest and, you know, trying to guide them through it safely. You've always been that for me and I think for us since
Randy called you an armchair quarterback so long ago. And you guys kissed and made up at the coffee shop. But yeah, I was wondering, were you always in that mentor position in Knowles or was there really a darker time where you were trying to Aspen and the mountains to yourself because you've certainly been here despite your Texas very, very early days.
Randy (43:48.84)
Hehehehehe
Louis Dawson (43:54.695)
You
Doug (44:14.722)
longer than almost anyone I know.
Louis Dawson (44:17.223)
Well, I can tell you that I do think there's two approaches people take. And some people are called to share and mentor and make new friends, take people out in the mountains. And then there's another personality type where they just aren't interested in that. I don't think there's particularly dark. It's this different
Doug (44:41.784)
You
Louis Dawson (44:45.853)
It's just a different personality type. there was always a side of me that wanted to share and mentor people.
thing is, that's not saying there wasn't that dark side to me. Where, if I saw too many people on a trail, I'd get all snarky and, where are these crowds coming from? you know, if there were people on a climb that were moving slow, especially in my wall climbing days, like on Hill Cap, you know, if I came across a party that was dinking around with their ropes and taking forever, you know, I'd get a little pissed off and, you
grab their belay and whip up past them and say, you know, sayonara. And, you know, and so there were, I've experienced that aspect of things, but on the whole, you know, my whole life, my whole adult life and young adult life, I really enjoyed sharing the mountaineering experience. And I think that was one of the things, even in my younger stupid days.
Doug (45:35.33)
haha
Louis Dawson (45:57.533)
that I still was called to do and did a pretty decent job when I did work my NOLS courses and do some guiding and some outdoor ed work with kids and Aspen and that sort of stuff. But, you know, so, yeah, to answer your question, I just think it's kind of two different approaches.
Doug (46:21.784)
think that's fair.
Randy (46:22.019)
Well, I think it's a really, really lovely part of the book too, that, you know, like your, your love for the mountains and for sharing your experience in them, just comes out, you know, like from beginning to end, which makes it such an easy and fun read.
Louis Dawson (46:37.861)
It's cool you got that Randy because that's the theme that built itself. When I wrote the book I didn't have that as an intentional theme and I think it just comes out of my lifestyle.
Randy (46:44.238)
Mm -hmm.
Randy (46:49.464)
You
Mm -hmm.
Louis Dawson (46:53.555)
Which is cool.
Doug (46:56.29)
So I've known the Highlands bowl story since the Wild Snow days and I thought it was interesting that
Randy (46:56.503)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (47:03.357)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (47:07.741)
Ugh.
Doug (47:08.504)
that Highlands came up so early on. It must be in the first few chapters of you coming home after dark after maybe your first failed solo mission of trying to climb Highlands Peak. And it's crazy how pivotal it is in this valley and for so many skiers now. Did you ever think, how many people you think enjoy that peak now as...
Louis Dawson (47:19.101)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Doug (47:34.912)
inbounds controlled terrain it must be tens of thousands a year yeah did you ever
Louis Dawson (47:37.811)
thousands, thousands, hundreds of thousands. No, that's one of the crazy things about writing your life is, at least in my case, and I've heard that it happens to a lot of people, is these things pop up in your life and you realize there's these connections between objects or terrain or places that you didn't really realize. And yeah, you know, I'd...
Before Highland Ball was opened as part of the ski resort, I was in a big avalanche up there in 1982. And, you know, it was a powerful experience, near death, all that stuff. I was more mature then, and I was able to deal with it better than some other accidents I had before. But, you know, I hadn't, I never thought about the connection I had to that area of Colorado and to that mountain.
And then when I was writing the memoir, I'm like remembering, yeah, you know, when I was a kid and we just moved to Aspen, and it was summer and we built a house basically at the bottom of that peak. And I decided, I'm going to go climb that thing because I'd read about it in my books. So I grabbed my, you know, Snickers bar or whatever and head up there in the afternoon and don't make it back till dark and freak my parents out.
or in the middle of calling the rescue team. you know, and to realize that while I was writing was really, that was a fun, those kind of things are really fun. I mean, they're work, you know, you're sitting there trying to put it on paper so that's readable. But on the other hand, that's a very positive, cool thing about this style of writing is you see these connections and these threads of places.
in your life.
Doug (49:31.99)
I would say even this year I had...
You know, such an amazing time on that peak. I know Randy has too, but you know, one of the things I tried to do on the recent backpacking trip and consistently is experience a place as if it's for the first time. And I think it was early season. We had kind of no intention on really going up there. We were just skinning Highlands before it was opened.
Louis Dawson (49:52.413)
Yeah.
Doug (50:03.49)
and got up there a little faster than we thought and we're like hey let's just take it up the ridge all the way at the top and we ended up not skiing the bowl proper we just kind of came back down the ridge line.
because it was just too thin at that point but being up there totally alone before the mountain opens it felt like it was my first time ever being there it's and it is crazy how a place like that can have that kind of draw you know through the generations and through the decades that something just keeps pulling you towards the top of it and
Louis Dawson (50:37.223)
Yeah, one of the vignettes I left out of the book, which of course most of the vignettes don't make it into a book like this because otherwise it would be too long. during high school, got a couple of my buddies and I were doing some kind of various sort of snow climbing, mountaineering and that sort of thing. And one day we decided, well, you know, we're going to go on the ski lifts and then we're going to climb.
Randy (50:37.676)
you
Louis Dawson (51:05.565)
Highland Peak and go back along the Highland Ridge a little ways. So we got our backpacks and we had, we were total amateurs at winter climbing, but we had our, you know, we got our backpacks together and the funky winter clothing and this and that, and rode up on the chairlift with all this gear. And when we got to the top of Loge,
which is the top of the ski resort, the ski patrol guys grabbed us and said, you know, what in the heck are you kids up to? Because it was really dangerous what we were doing. And they're like, we're going to climb Highland Peak, man, know, mountaineering. And the guy's like, no way. You're going up that peak. And the thing I remember best is we thought we were being really clever. And we'd
Randy (51:43.315)
Hehehehehe
Louis Dawson (52:01.661)
taking ski pole baskets and put them on our ice axes. So we had these ice axes with the ski pole basket slipped over the spike on the ice axe, which, you know, is the most geekish thing you could ever imagine, you know. And some of those ski patrollers were mountaineers, you know. So they probably saw us and they're like, my God, who are these kids, you know? And that was pretty funny. So we turned around and I don't know what we had for skis.
Doug (52:15.317)
Hahaha
Louis Dawson (52:32.253)
but we managed to ski back down that thing on whatever we decided to bring with us. It was pretty funny.
Randy (52:37.494)
Thank
Doug (52:39.362)
Well, we have to get into it a little Lou. What was your equipment like then compared to what we're seeing now?
Louis Dawson (52:49.181)
Well, I've been around long enough and we've had we've talked about this on other podcasts where it is fun to reminisce. Because it back in the high school days, that would have been basically. Probably a silvretta binding, but not a silvretta like you would think of it, but a silvretta, a sasfe, which had a was just this wire frame that fit around your hiking boot and had this actually did have a free pivot.
believe it or not. But other than that, it would fit around your hiking boot and if you look it up on the internet, you'll find them. People have them in their collections. I've got a couple in my...
binding collection. you know, and then of course a wooden ski. We didn't have skins. Skins did exist in those days. Skins have been around for thousands of years actually. But, you know, we had cross country wax and we were going to carry our skis and we weren't planning on skiing down the side of the mountain, down through what they call the bowl now. But we were going to ski along the ridge and this and that.
And with the Silvretta binding in those wooden skis, you we were probably looking at maybe 10 pounds, eight to 10 pounds a foot. And then later on, when the real AT binding started coming out of Europe, the frame bindings that you could tour on, but then latch your heel down, those actually weighed more than the than the Silvretta. And you're talking up
above 10 pounds of foot a lot of times when you had a big ski touring, plastic ski touring boot. I weighed one set up a few years ago when I was doing some blogging and it weighed 12 pounds per foot, which is, you know, you have to be a serious, talented athlete to go hiking up 3000 vertical feet with 12 pounds weights on each foot. I mean, that's, you know, that's not something you just do like spur of the moment.
Doug (54:57.944)
Yeah.
Randy (55:03.393)
It just makes my hips and my back hurt. Just thinking about that, yeah.
Louis Dawson (55:06.065)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So and, you know, as you guys know from being in the business, you know, the weight that you carry on your feet in this sport is is what makes or breaks it. And that's what changed. Everything was when the the better binding started coming out. And that's not necessarily the tech bindings because there were just before the days of the tech binding, which.
I don't know, let's see, the first tech binding, when me and Michael Kennedy tested them, a guy had brought them in in 1993. But prior to that, we had the Raymer binding, had some problems, but it was really quite light in weight. And that was when it all started with the Raymer.
because he'd set a different standard with a lighter binding and then Fritz Bartle too. Yeah, yeah, it was a frame binding but it was done more elegantly with some of the release functions built into the toe and things like that. And it's actually what Fritz Bartle when he designed the tech binding or invented it, he kind of reversed the mechanicals of the the Raymer binding. And...
Randy (56:05.431)
Was the Raymer still a frame binding? Yeah.
Mm
Randy (56:15.417)
Mm -hmm.
Louis Dawson (56:29.061)
and was thus able to miniaturize the mechanicals and do something different with the heel. And that's when things really started going and it was all driven by, you know, less weight on your feet. You know, it kind of a simple equation.
Randy (56:48.655)
Yeah. Yeah, it's like really hard to fathom given where gear is now and especially ski touring gear. You know, mean, part of why Doug and I started the store was because the selection for backcountry gear and even like shops to have it worked on was so limited. And that's not, you know, that's only going back 10 years a little bit more than that.
Doug (56:50.242)
Well, it's amazing.
Louis Dawson (57:12.808)
Yeah.
Randy (57:18.275)
to think about how far gear has come since you guys were on, you know, wooden skis trying to go ski highland peak is like just really, it's hard to like fathom. And it's hard to also think of like a comparable, like, you know, a comparable experience we would have today. You know, like what is it?
Louis Dawson (57:40.327)
Yeah, I've tried to come up with analogies over the years with my writing. And I mean, you've got the advent of fuel injection. You know, that's definitely a milestone in automotive. And maybe that kind of, you know, the advent of fuel injection kind of parallels the advent of the tech binding. You know, that's when you can look at it that way. And, you know, there's other other things you can look at. But, you know, it's
Randy (57:53.091)
Mm -hmm.
Randy (58:01.615)
Mm -hmm.
Louis Dawson (58:09.711)
It's definitely a pretty amazing transition. it's, you know, I guess you could even compare it to rock climbing where, you know, prior to sport climbing and then sport climbing comes along and people are using lighter gear and generally climbing in good weather with minimal clothing and, you know, really good, elegant rock climbing shoes. And all of sudden.
the sport's been transformed by that gear and their goals. And so that's pretty similar to the ski touring revolution.
Doug (58:48.332)
And another thing I think people don't consider in modern ski touring is that there are other people doing it. When you talk about breaking your leg on Aspen Mountain and your buddy slamming a jar of honey, because he knew he was going to need the calories to come and set a skin track up to rescue you. Yeah, or not even a skin track to break trail and foot. Like now when we're
Randy (59:05.911)
Hehehehehe
Louis Dawson (59:09.297)
Yeah, to break trail on foot, yeah.
Doug (59:17.486)
you know, climbing these peaks with 3000, 4000 feet of relief, somebody is maybe gone before you, or at least there's like a buried skin track under it. Every time I'm fully breaking trail to a place no one has been that year, I just can't believe how much the sport changes, even with nice light gear.
Louis Dawson (59:36.711)
Yeah, that's I think that's where I noticed it more because of my background and being around for so long is there was a time when I was a ski touring out of Aspen and Crested Butte. Like, you know, I try to be generous to Aspen because there were some really good ski mountaineers in that town, but there weren't very many. And, you know, the number of people who actually went out and ski to mountain say in the spring.
and had a mountaineering attitude and skills, I don't know, it might have been like a dozen people at one point back in you know, in 1960s. And yes, you you didn't, you know, you went to ski something in the winter up through the trees behind a hut or something, and there's no way there'd be a skin track. I mean, most people didn't even use skins. You know, most of the hut users used Nordic wax, which I did for quite a while.
So, you know, it's hard to express how different it is. you know, the same thing, and another thing that really changed is mountain rescue, both the mountain rescue gear, their skills and their attitudes. And I do write in the book about the reason why we kind of had this odd experience where we were on the backside of the mountain.
Doug (01:00:48.525)
That's true.
Louis Dawson (01:01:03.909)
It was, I was hurt and we didn't know when the rescue guys were going to get there. There was a volunteer mountain rescue team and it was all good, really excellent people that are on that team. But they didn't have this concept of like sort of this first responder speedy execution concept. And they tended to be really
careful, which is the principle of rescues, know, keep the rescuers safe first. But because of the time in the 1960s and 70s, without, you know, we didn't even have the avalanche beacons. So the concept of safety was relative to the gear and the skills. So the Mountain Rescue Team didn't really have these, you know, fast response teams that would hike in.
And nowadays when Mountain Rescue gets a call out of Aspen, they've got guys that are on it so fast you wouldn't believe it. They jump on in a truck and they're at the trailhead and there's three guys that are really fit and they're up to the accident site in two hours. It's pretty amazing. mean quicker than the helicopter even can get there sometimes.
Randy (01:02:12.142)
Yeah.
Doug (01:02:23.149)
Yeah.
Randy (01:02:28.461)
Yeah, it's really amazing. I'm reading about that, how the relationship between Mountain Rescue and even Ski Patrol and skiers was contentious for a long time or, you know, a little bit at odds.
Louis Dawson (01:02:41.499)
Yeah, I mean, was it wasn't contentious, but it was more like, you know, we can't we knew guys that did mountain rescue. And the other thing that would happen in those days is a lot of the the mountain rescue volunteers were were not the the climbers and or the mountaineers. I mean, they knew mountaineering, but and as the years rolled by, that changed in a lot. And nowadays, you know, when you go to a mountain rescue aspen.
Randy (01:03:00.291)
Yep.
Louis Dawson (01:03:10.887)
meeting, you'll see a lot of people that are climbers and mountaineers that are also volunteering their time and skills to the rescue team as well. And that changed, you know, it's always been some of that, but you know, it changed. So that's been a really interesting change. And, you know, of course, with the advent of the in -reach and satellite communication, the ease of getting rescued
Randy (01:03:21.635)
Yeah, yeah.
Louis Dawson (01:03:42.539)
has been a phenomenal sea change in the whole situation. And that actually might be something about what's driven the popularity of this back country sports is the fact that if you go out there and break your ankle, you're not going to be just sitting under a tree until you die of hypothermia.
Doug (01:04:01.27)
Yeah, and you don't have to consider that when you're leaving the trailhead in the morning. That's, you know, you're considering a fun day in the mountains. not is this life and death experience because someone can come get you.
Louis Dawson (01:04:07.623)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (01:04:15.751)
Well, and it makes solo, you know, just continuing to digress here from writing life, it makes solo ski touring a lot more legit because you can carry an in -reach.
you know, as long as you're not getting buried in an avalanche, if you get hurt, you can fire up your in -reach and you know, it's like you don't have anybody to help you there, but you know, at least you're, you're keyed in and the mountain rescue team knows what's going on. And next thing you know, they're coming in with a long line on the helicopter.
Doug (01:04:50.574)
Well, the book really does cover 50 years of this. And I didn't want to tease out too many stories because there's your 14 -er journey in there, your Denali trips, skiing with your son. There's plenty of awesome stories for the reader. We definitely just wanted this to be more of like a companion episode to anybody interested in what's going on.
Louis Dawson (01:04:55.368)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (01:05:10.929)
Yeah.
Doug (01:05:19.328)
in Lou's mind writing the book and bringing it to us. I gotta say Lou, I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed reading it when we got it in the shop for the first time back in March. I went back, cause I remember you asked for an opinion on the narrator. I really liked the narrator who ended up choosing for the audio book. I was very psyched. There's now an audio book in Maine.
Louis Dawson (01:05:26.109)
Thanks.
Louis Dawson (01:05:42.717)
Yeah.
Doug (01:05:47.362)
going through it while hiking and biking a second time to prepare for this and refresh on the stories really easy. I just wanted to tell anybody interested out there, you you can buy the book on Amazon, of course, you can buy it on our website, Cripple Creek, BC .com, you can get it on Audible, lose self -published and work really hard to bring it through many mediums from.
soft cover books to hard cover books to ebooks and everything in between. definitely, yeah, definitely go out and find the book where you can get it. It is the perfect preseason stoker for a great upcoming season we have ahead of us.
Louis Dawson (01:06:20.528)
Everything.
Randy (01:06:21.771)
He
Louis Dawson (01:06:34.727)
Thanks. That's some kind words coming from you guys.
Doug (01:06:39.266)
Yeah.
Randy (01:06:39.831)
Well, yeah, Lou, thank you so much for being on and sharing this book with all of us. Just couldn't agree more. It's such a fun read. And this is even better to sit down face to face with you, guess, across a couple states, but to sit down and to talk more about it has been really great. Really appreciate you coming on.
Louis Dawson (01:06:40.147)
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Louis Dawson (01:06:49.427)
Cool.
Louis Dawson (01:06:59.432)
Yeah.
Louis Dawson (01:07:04.445)
Yeah, the gifts of that kind of project just keep on giving. I'm even just sitting here talking with you guys about it. I'm having little insights and thoughts about life. It's pretty nice.
Doug (01:07:17.068)
Yeah, we hope for you listeners and you soon to be readers out there does the same. So thanks again, Lou, and stay safe this winter.
Louis Dawson (01:07:26.45)
You're welcome.