Dr Graeme Nelson – RIP

“Dr Graeme Nelson was a keen reader of WildSnow, and a regular poster.” Those words flew in with heavy wings a few days ago. Our sport has its dangers, and once in a while a beloved “WildSnower” doesn’t return from a trip. This past August 24, Graeme was ski mountaineering in Australia (his home) and took a sliding fall on hard snow, resulting in his death. News report here.

I’m having a tough time writing this. We’re a community here. Despite most of us not having met each other. Despite our divergent views. We have a common bond in that we go to the mountains, and receive something special that we just KNOW that other guy has experienced. We get to know each other as guest bloggers, through our comment threads, or when we do finally meet in person on the trail, at a tradeshow, or even in a grocery checkout line or airport baggage claim (I’ve had both happen, several times.)

But mostly, we develop our relationships when we take the time and sometimes emotional risk of doing public comments on blog posts. Graeme was one such commenter, and I always appreciated his chiming in on diverse subjects.

Most of the comments under the name “Graeme” on WildSnow.com are from Dr. Nelson, you can search for a few of them here, but there are many more beyond the search results.

We offer condolences to Graeme’s family and friends. If you feel called to do so, you can donate in memory of Dr Grame Nelson. We put one in there from WildSnow. Least we could do. Also, feel free to leave condolences as comments on this blog post.

Tribute thread at ski.com.au.

Accident details may be forthcoming, but we’ve been asked to not focus on that at this time.