Like so many of us, I knew who Adam was, and had greeted him and chatted with him repetitively in the Baker side country and White Salmon Lodge from time to time, but didn't pretend to really know him. There are undoubtedly those who participate here who were close to him and really knew him. The riveting, and I presume well-intending to be heartfelt, article should not make any of us who are like me feel that we now know him. His life is a tragedy no matter what else, and I presume he had plenty of wonderful person in him.
We should not presume to know him, and we should not judge him or what we do not really know. But the story of his life and way too early death should remind us that we can fall prey to our angst, our frustrations, our sense of life's unfairness and constraints - and if we lose our objectivity, our hankering to break out and succumb to heuristic traps may be our downfall. We are backcountry skiers. The mountains and adventure and communing with the majesty and wonder of the mountains restores our sense of being alive. But we are husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, friends, lovers, and all we want to come home to. Ski to live and to keep living.
