Whenever people ask me, Are you working right now? (I get asked this a lot), my answer is always the same: To the untrained eye, it may appear as if I’m not working.
But at the heart of the matter, I’m getting paid to pay attention. This, of course, is when everyone laughs. But it’s the forecaster’s job to pay attention, because it may save his life and will most certainly save the lives of some of the readers of his forecast. The same goes for mountain guides, highway forecasters, and ski patrollers, this need to pay attention. When people laugh - and then our eyes shine and our eyebrows dance - it’s because they fail to realize that paying attention is hard work.
My old friend Jerry Roberts, who long battled avalanche dragons before battling cancer in the South San Juans, (He ‘won’ the first but ‘lost’ the second) would most certainly agree about this idea of paying attention, but he would also add that he gets paid to worry. The two are not the same, but they can be related. (The fact that excessive worry can lead to blindness of attention and paralysis in action is beyond the scope of this essay.) But Roberts does point out that “From November through May, paying attention is what one must do. It’s who you are, and there’s no difference between being “on” and being “off” the clock”. ~~~~ For example - This change in crystal type, that rise in temperature; this moment of frontal passage; that veering of the winds…it’s happening and it’s happening all the time. No weather, you say? Ah, that’s when the weather does the devil’s work: that beautiful powder snow on the surface? It’s starting to facet, to square off…on its way to becoming the next weak layer. And when that next storm comes, Look out!
So, the next time I’m asked, Are you working? I might branch out a little, and be a little more honest, and say, simply, Yes.
❄️
For my friend Wendy Wagner, who, among many things, loved Kelvin Helmholtz clouds 1973-2025
