Trips Reports - Herd Mentality

Why not?    Well what if I had a sweet day at Kendall Knob, you know 6" of pow and only a couple of tracks.  Now, if I only ski weekends or a couple of times a month, I can brag on TAY on how sweet it was.   However, what if I have the Silas schedule?   The one where I can think, "man that day was sweet, I will have to go back tomorrow."   So, I go back tomorrow, but for some reason 8 other people are headed for the knob.   Whoops, maybe I should have not posted that sick picture with my buddy getting face shots.

Yes, I know totally selfish.  However it's one thing to share with a few of your ski partners, but when you post that trip report on TAY you may get close to a 1000 views.  If 10% of the viewers think, "Man, that looks sweet, let's go there this weekend!"  then you are encouraging the herd.  Or "gaggle" ??  

people are going to go out somewhere. If there was no TAY do you really think Kendall stump wouldn't still be a popular spot? I really could care less about people posting and then the lurkers hitting the low hanging fruit. There's only so many easy access zones at Stevens/
Snoq/Crystal/Baker/MRNP, and it generally is a lot more sweat equity to hit different trailheads. The popularity of touring keeps rising, so the quick easy access spots are going to be overwhelming. If you go hiking at Tiger Mt, do you expect to be alone? It's not any different at Skyline Ridge if it's snowed in the last week.

However if you want to do something rad it's there. I hit a new zone today on a recon trip. I'll definitely be back to work on my project, but until I get the route developed I'm not going to share online. Lots of natural slides today though, and no conditions reports or useful telemetry before heading out translates to you better have your best snow travel game face on...

To the masses: Check out Bryant Col, it's a great line. If you haven't done it you should.

Thread drift , but what is the correct term for a collection of TAYers?

A herd of TAYers?
A pod of TAYers.?
A cluster of TAYers.?
A murder of TAYers?
A gaggle of TAYers?

thank you.

I think it depends on where you go...

if you go with a group of TAYers to a known stash just posted on TAY, then its a herd
if you go with a small group to your own stash, its a pod
if you happen to run into one or more groups of TAYers by coincidence, then its a cluster
if you come upon a herd of dead TAYers on the snow, its a murder
if you come upon a herd or TAYers toking out, its a gaggle...

Bob, did you see the deal at Costco? Snowshoe package only $80 bucks!

This thread is worthless without pics.

to post or not to post?  Would it be better to post general area reports, with elevation and aspect, then to not post at all?

Yes, better to post something useful (at least I find the "general area reports" useful) than not at all.

I'd rather encourage lurkers to sign on and start posting than discourage longtime community members from posting with judgmental crap about how they choose to post TRs.

And I don't think that calling it "territoriality" is quite right

2.animal defense of territory: a pattern of animal behavior marked by the establishment, demarcation, and defense of an area that can support the growth and activity of an animal or group of animals

When I see other skiers out on the tours for which I will post only "general area conditions" reports, it's always been nice, even when I've not seen them there before. Not wanting to trigger a herd to join you does not necessarily equal defense against all from outside the group.

I have yet to pick up on the sort of "territoriality" out on ski tours that I hear claimed happens on certain surf breaks. The competition for the resource is perhaps not nearly that intense yet, at least here in the PNW...