{"id":43552,"date":"2019-02-05T13:13:30","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T21:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=43552"},"modified":"2025-11-20T18:18:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:18:19","slug":"winters-edge-live-like-laura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/snowsports\/winters-edge-live-like-laura","title":{"rendered":"Winter’s Edge: Live Like Laura"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow long have you been sleeping outside then?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh that’s a hard question. This would be, oh I don’t know, it’s going to be, 15 years. . . We put the bed outside. We liked it and it stayed outside. . . If you sleep inside, you don’t hear all the birds, you can’t hear the coyotes, you don’t hear those things and the wind.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was the first thing I ever learned about Laura Green.\u00a0 That her bed is outside under a covered porch at her home, and she and her husband choose to sleep outside year-round.\u00a0 Because they like it.\u00a0 Laura is a legend in her community, and a humble, quite badass.\u00a0 Snow safety professional as well as wind forecaster for vocation. Backcountry skier.\u00a0 Windsurfer AND kiteboarder, depending on conditions.\u00a0 Kayaker.\u00a0 A vibrant member of a dancing community.\u00a0 Avid gardener.\u00a0 I am sure that her hours spent outdoors far outnumber her hours spent indoors (especially if you count sleeping).<\/p>\n

\"Laura<\/p>\n

Laura\u2019s snow safety work protected both resort skiers and backcountry skiers from avalanches.\u00a0 At Mt. Hood Meadows, Laura\u2019s job at ski patrol included skiing into avalanche-prone terrain before the skiing public arrives and detonating explosives that trigger avalanches.\u00a0 By pre-triggering avalanches, it prevents them from being able to roll down on skiers during business hours at the resort.\u00a0 It keeps in-bounds skiers safe.\u00a0 She was also a professional \u201cobserver\u201d for Northwest Avalanche Center, collecting field data that would be translated into backcountry forecasts.\u00a0 Both jobs are the kind you don\u2019t want to mess up.\u00a0 Laura shouldered the weight of that responsibility to keep the public safe and enjoyed her duties.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d never met someone who loved throwing dynamite as much as she loved savoring the silent majesty of nature.\u00a0 She explained, \u201cWell [snow] comes out of the sky in these beautiful, amazing shapes. . . the beauty of all that happening with us having no control.\u201d\u00a0 She loved the power of the wind, \u201cIf you stand out in the gale, just the awesome power of the earth, I love it. That’s why I love a blizzard too\u2026\u201d.\u00a0 Laura lived her life absorbing the essence of nature\u2019s beauty and power around her and channeling it into energy that drove her to play and work hard.\u00a0 She loved the power of the wind\u2014especially blizzards\u2014and knowing how to navigate that, to dance with it.\u00a0 To have her own efforts push up against that massive force of nature.\u00a0 But those who push to the edge with forces of nature sometimes get claimed by them.<\/p>\n

\"Laura<\/p>\n

On December 6th<\/sup>, 2018 Laura passed away in a windsurfing accident in her home region and beloved Columbia River Gorge.\u00a0 The wind finally carried her away with it, out into the glowing ether of the sky.<\/p>\n

Her community is left with a massive hole in it.\u00a0 Though Laura knew that she was just one part of a relay race and that one day she would need to pass the baton forward to the people she mentored.\u00a0 \u201cI feel like [my job] is a contribution that I can make to the world. . . It is up to me actually to keep the train going that someone is going to have to take over where I leave off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Live like Laura.<\/p>\n

Memorial website<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos:\u00a0Sean O\u2019Connor \/ Storygorge.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow long have you been sleeping outside then?\u201d \u201cOh that’s a hard question. This would be, oh I don’t know, it’s going to be, 15 years. . . We put the bed outside. We liked it and it stayed outside. . . If you sleep inside, you don’t hear all the birds, you can’t hear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7325,"featured_media":43558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"internal-tag":[],"class_list":["post-43552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-snowsports","post_format-post-format-video"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/snowsports\/winters-edge-live-like-laura","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Winter’s Edge: Live Like Laura","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/snowsports\/winters-edge-live-like-laura","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/snowsports\/winters-edge-live-like-laura"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/02\/17_01_14_Laura-Green_-\u00a9Sean-OConnor-1-e1549395073216.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/02\/17_01_14_Laura-Green_-\u00a9Sean-OConnor-1-e1549395073216.jpg?fit=1798%2C1200"},"articleSection":"Snowsports","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Anders Nordblom"}],"creator":["Anders Nordblom"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2019-02-05T21:13:30Z","datePublished":"2019-02-05T21:13:30Z","dateModified":"2025-11-21T02:18:19Z"},"rendered":"