Outside Magazine article on Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts died in December 2016 at White Pass.  I knew him for over a decade and skied with him on a few occasions, but it's clear after reading this that I didn't really know him.  I'll never forget his last words to me a few days before he passed "I'm trying to get my life together."  Adam, I hope you've found peace now and I'm sorry I wasn't a better friend. 

Thanks to Christopher Solomon for writing this. 

Adam Roberts article in Outside Magazine by Christopher Solomon


edit: time flies

Always thought this was a pretty cool youtube.

Thanks, Hop. Lots of food for thought.

Mark

Thanks for sharing this - it was a difficult read for me.

I was skiing at White Pass that day and remember it well. One of those days where it snowed almost blizzard-like. The resort was somewhat empty considering what an incredible powder day it was. The snow was frosty and over the knees everywhere. I skied the west ridge above chair 6 all day long and near 3:00 decided to head down just behind the High Camp Lodge through an area called The Triangle which ends at The Plank. As I made my way down The Plank towards Chair 4 I stopped now and then to look down at shots through the trees below that ended at Hwy 12. The entries from The Plank were long gullies filled with volumes of fresh snow like half-pipes calling to be skied. I was sorely tempted to end my day with a decent through the waiting side country which I skied many times over the years, but I was alone, had no bc gear or cell phone and instead continued on past Chair 4 and down to the main lodge. I know that had I been skiing with someone else even without the gear we would have skied one of those lines because the conditions were so overwhelming and irresistible. In the end though I did not because the dare and the risk were too great, but most of all because I was too afraid.

Everyone has a different risk:reward ratio. I didn't know Adam personally but I was impressed by his lines & videos. I know times had gotten very hard for him and he seemed to be in a downward spiral but it was, according to his good friends, skiing that held things together. Turning in fresh powder gave him a reason to live. When I heard about his passing it made me second-guess my own decisions to ride the terrain I had done so that day. Bad things happen to good people, maybe Adam wasn't "good" in everyone's mind but he was one of us, belonged & contributed to our community and I'm not sure how articles like this serve to do more than rip the scab off a healing wound.

RIP Adam, you are missed

I'm not sure how articles like this serve to do more than rip the scab off a healing wound.

This article helped me understand someone that I had known for a long time, but didn't really know. I knew he was a hardcore skier because I skied with him a bit back in the day. I had kept him pretty peripheral in recent years and I didn't know anything about his demons until after his death. So, from someone that actually spent a bit of time with the guy, this article put it all together for me.

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.