In an article for Power Magazine entitled "Nature's Feedback", Matt Hanson asks why so many of the best skier's are dying. The article concentrates on Steve Romeo and Chris Onufer's deaths in an avalanche on the 7th March 2012 in Grand Teton National Park.
As the brains behind the popular blog TetonAT, Romeo was particularly well known to the online community. Although the avalanche bulletin announced Moderate danger on the day of their accident. Like most people who ski a lot Romeo had already had a number of close calls including three avalanches. Reed Finlay a ski patroller at Jackson Hole and friend of Romeo and Onufer had noticed strong winds the day before, loading the upper elevations... he was surprised at the route his friends had chosen for their ascent, which led them right into the starting zone of the avalanche path. Finlay says he thinks they let their guard down due to time pressures and the fact it wasn't sliding as they climbed.
If you look at the French statistics the typical avalanche victim is local to the mountains, often experienced. Avalanches remain the exception rather than the rule. Most trips are without incident or we ski out the sluffs and slides. This feedback is dangerous; it can lead to over confidence. Being local to the summits it is tempting to sneak in trips even when the conditions are marginal and in the most popular areas, before they are skied out. The online communities create their own demands and pressures. Seeing fantastic trips posted by others without incident and the need to feed blogs, facebook pages etc with photos.
http://www.powdermag.com/stories/natures-feedback/