NWAC Pro or no-pro.. what would you do?

Last year at NWAC, not attending the pro session killed the day for me. Mostly what I remember from last year was "...and we covered that in the PRO session", and "...if you'd been in the PRO session, you'd have really heard a good story". There was plenty of good stuff in the general admission session, for sure, but it felt second class. I'd forgotten how that made me feel until I clicked "tickets" today on the NWAC sign-up site and was faced once again with the "PRO" v "General Admission" choice. So... what to do!?

I'm no pro. I'm a pure recreationalist. But I spend more time skiing than my mountain rescue friends, who are pros. I'm fully conflicted by this.

Pro or General Admission? Do I "Pose", or do I stew over being shut out from the serious conversation. Or do I just skip it?

I'm in the same boat, I am sure no pro, and would feel out of place in that forum. In years past one of the best parts of NSAW was sitting in the room hearing all the rich discussion that came from that environment. Frustrated to see the same setup again.

by all means go pro, invite Silas.

As it turned out, I went for the pro. Should have stayed in bed, and waited for the talks on Wolverines and red alge.  Had lunch with Silas, he was wiser (of course) and came at the end for a beer and to visit.

one outta two's not bad assuming you learned something from one

"....Should have stayed in bed, and waited for the talks on Wolverines and red alge" yeah...the two talks that I originally thought I'd skip ended up being the most interesting...right?

There definitely was a good lesson 'buried' in the Phantom avalanche at Alpental years ago... what for literally hundreds of years can be considered a 'safe zone' can become an epic catastrophic avalanche when the conditions are right.

The pro session was about mentoring not covering up incidents from the public

I sent email to organizer and asked if I could attend and the response was "yes". 

The question perhaps we should all/each ask ourselves when unsure what choice to take, in avy terrain, in the field or in life, perhaps should be "WWMRD?"