After Amie Engerbretson‘s avalanche experience at Alta Ski Resort, she received some surprising and unwanted attention.

When her accident report was first published, skiers and non skiers alike in the community were quick to comment on Amie and her party’s ‘stupidity’ at deciding to ski that certain run.

She said: “The comments on it were like ‘these people are idiots, I can’t believe they are professionals…’ people had a lot of negative things to say.”

Amie expained that when accidents like this happen, a lot of people are very embarrassed and ashamed about their decisions so they pretend it didn’t happen and hide it away. They don’t want to look unprofessional and stupid amongst skiers who feel they would have made better decisions. She admits she was embarrassed by the decision she had made, saying “No one was going to say anything that was going to make me feel worse or more stupid than I already did. I know that I made a big mistake and I didn’t need anyone to tell me that.” 

That’s when she decided to publish her story on a personal blog to “give this negative story of how easy it is to make that kind of crazy mistake like that and how surprised I was that it could happen.” Because, at the end of the day, no matter how safe you think you are, the heuristic traps involved and the physical aspects of the snow mean these accidents can happen to anyone.

Amie describes her accident as “A learning experience, if you can make a positive come from something negative I think that’s all we can do.”