I think you should see if the little church in empire will let you do a sermon
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I think you should see if the little church in empire will let you do a sermon
http://vimeo.com/22250873
I have. Never really changed my perspective on anything (that wasn't the first, it was the third and thankfully last I have been caught in). I knew the risk going in and experiencing it first hand didn't change my perspective.
I am actually quite conservative and generally avoid the backcountry on elevated risk days and either ski controlled resort pow, ride low/no angle pow on my sled, or hit the park/pipe/moguls/cord. It is my experience that, on a day for day basis, it is weekend warriors (that would be me) who ONLY ski pow/BC who are at most risk of making bad decisions as they are so constrained by other factors that decide when then ski.
1974 March Taos West Basin; swept down maybe 200 feet but buried me up to my waist. Too young to know what was happening (17).
1996 Skied a fairly hairy line off the Janus near Montgenevre and knocked a slough onto my wife which knocked her down, tore off a ski and carried her a hundred feet or so but stopped before the choke out of the summit. That one scared me. Was with a rather cavalier guide.
1999 Feb got knocked down a good long way, maybe 600 feet tumbled, washing machined, ended up on top. That one scared me. My run @ Crustal.
One other time (2003?) on a relatively mellow slope, carried only 50 feet, partly buried on my side. Silver Basin (Rusty Nails saw it).
Then there's been innumerable little sloughs that carried me, made me think. One good one this last year that was scary, but nothing really happened.
I think that my growing caution is more a function of age and responsibilities. Little slides make me stop and consider more now than ever. The little slough I got caught in that dragged me down this last year in Emp Housing gave me the greatest pause yet even though I skied off to the side and it stopped.
The situation that gave me the greatest change of attitude was after I'd done an avie 1 and headed out to ski a BC line out fairly far in the Wallowas with a guy that blew off the pit assessment of being dangerous (40" on top of 10" of sugar, isolated rblock broke on stepping onto the block). He went ahead and skied the line. Really pissed me off and never really skied BC with that guy again.
StuntCok: Good and interesting vid wish I was there: Bluebird, good snow. I agree with your last sentance....and I think that has lot to do with recent bad events. Folks need to ski by conditions not the day of the week.
I got swept about 50-100 feet down the backside of Mt. Mackenzie this winter (the face where they hold the freeski comp). We weren't planning on skiing the face, but we had to ski the very top to access the line we wanted. It was actually our second time down that day, and the first time we all made it down fine, as did many others going the same way, so I wasn't feeling nervous at all.
I was coming down when I turned into a wind-loaded pocket of snow that was on a slightly different aspect than the main slope. The snow let go on top of a hard crust and quickly swept me off my feet. I had little control and was desperately trying to get a hold on something.
Fortunately, I managed to self-arrest pretty quickly. Had I not, there was 1,500 vertical feet of 40-degree terrain below me. I got up pretty quickly and was calm at first, but once we entered our actual line, I was nervous as hell and basically digging in on every turn in case the slope went. It was definitely an eye opener in the sense of how the snow pack can change with slight changes in aspect.
Young Men,
I have never been in an avalanche but I remember when Herr Lint decided to open a ski school and hired me to be an instructor. Hadley and I couldnt get there in time for his inaugural ski week so we agreed I would begin work at Christmas. For his opening week, Herr Lent lured 15 wealthy clients down from Berlin. 11 of them ended up perishing in an avalanche, which is a very poor advertisement for a ski school. Hadley took a photo of those frozen Germans, stacked up like a cord of wood.
So instead of an avalanche story, I offer this one. . . Evan Shipman and I were sitting in Harry's New York Bar on Rue Danou. This is before it got wrecked with tourists and it was a fine place to study the racing form in peace. At the time there was an ex-pug who used to come in with a pet lion. He would sit at the end of the bar and drink gin and the lion would stand next to him. He was a very nice lion, kept his growling and roaring to an absolute minimum. However, as lions do, he would occasionally take a shit on the floor. Which was bad for business, and for concentrating on the racing form.
After the third straight day of the ex-pug coming in with the lion and the lion shitting on the floor and patrons exiting and Harry pleading futilely with the ex-pug, Evan and I decided to sort them out. We flipped a coin and I drew the lion. The ex-pug was a welterweight well past his prime and I doubted I would've had any trouble whatsoever with him. But the coin toss had been a fair one. So I studied the lion for a moment and then grabbed him by the mane and hustled him out the door just like a run of the mill Irishman. Evan already had the ex-pug lying out on the sidewalk.
The lion gave me a long look but ended up going quietly. Starting shit with a lion is the closest I have come to being in an avalanche but in this case it worked out okay.
^^
The metaphor is not lost on me Papa.
Been knocked over and went for about a 40m ride once, breaking trail up the "dome" in the Shames BC. Very close to the area where last season an out of towner triggered and fully buried his wife.
Skied in lots of sluff, cut many slides intentionally - some for sport and self-education, some ski cutting prior to descent. Had 3 or 4 occasions where smaller stuff (sz 1 to 1.5) has let go and I've skied out of it (more like sluff management IMO). Had a couple of occasions where I cut smaller slides on the up track, generally that's a sign for me to run home with my tail between my legs.
Risk tolerance is getting lower as my age gets higher I think.
Powerful stuff guys, I'm glad this didn't turn into a tgr dick waving contest. And Hemingway has to be the best Alias in the history if the internet. Wow.
My son saw me getting hosed 2 saturdays ago when the cascades unleashed multiple huge slides on many mountains. He held on to a tree branch from above as snow flushed me around a corner and outta sight. WE GOT LUCKY!
in 2005 my best friend was buried and died on jan 12 in same valley, skiing is very dangerous.
bobby
^^^^^^skiing isn't dangerous. skiers are.
rog
IcelanticSkier, I completely misjudged you, I thought you were someone in NH who just really liked commenting on all the Western slide threads. That is a fucking massive slide, im glad you emerged relatively ok. Where was that? Was that really on the East Coast?Quote:
Originally Posted by icelanticskier
personally, ive been carried a short distance in some small harmless wet stuff
but when I was 20 I triggered a D2, without getting caught fortunately. I was about to ski the final pitch of a slope but was hesitant for some reason, and just as I barely touched my ski to the snow I was about to ski, the slope fractured 2ft deep and over 30' across breaking literally right at the tip of my ski. I watched the snow fall away from me, picking up speed, some going over a small cliff.
My first thought, whoa that was a crazy slough (aka lying to myself because my brain was still in denial about how I almost got my friend and I seriously hurt). Went home, watched the gopro video, realized what had happened, and seriously changed my attitude. 100+ days later and I haven't triggered jack shit, knock on wood
I received a very, very cheap lesson in choosing terrain more wisely with CO touchy-feely snowpack
2 thingsQuote:
Originally Posted by StuntCok
1) Great point about the weekend warriors, my worst decisions have come at times when I was skiing less and so most desperate to shred harder
2) You were wearing a BCA floatpack in that video. You didn't mention it but I know because I saw BCA post that video and tell everyone to buy their packs. I'm not saying that it was not still a scary situation, but do you think if had been buried, but dug out after 5-10 min and lived that you might think about it a little differently?
Did you have the packs the other times? Do you think that perhaps having been caught but without consequence has actually emboldened you?
a have spent quite some time traveling/living out west/canada (lots of time in avy terrain, mostly intermountain, maritime, and some tip toe time in continental as well) from my late teens through late 20's till i realized that good snow underfoot is good snow underfoot and i can have as much of that as i want here. at home. 40 now. making it to 40 was always a goal of mine. goal attained:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadyNasty
emerged better than relatively ok. i was perfectly fine in every way, thankfully. wasn't even a bit sore the next day. no bumps/bruises/scrapes. took a helluva ride tho. just stayed calm and didn't fight it till i thought i had a chance. worked out:)
^^^^^^^gulf of slides on the east side of the presidential range. yes east coast. not vermont:biggrin:yes, it was massive......
rog
Damn been a few years
Holy shit was my jong ass lucky on that day.
I doubt I'd put myself in this position any more either
.http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19.../AGavvy019.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19.../AGavvy020.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19.../AGavvy021.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19.../AGavvy022.jpg
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...-TR?highlight=
this one was a real eye opener you can read the low don't mean no or think the elephants don't come out every day , but some lessons get learnt the hard way.
huge group dynamics lesson
It's odd to think about how many times youve been pretty damn close to being the straw that broke the snowpacks back and probably not realized it
Had the pit dug when a partner started to come in and the whole slope collapsed/ cracked
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...hbum/sf002.jpg
tookout a few 100 yards on the opposite flank
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...m/P1011327.jpg where we had initial thought about as a pit local.
the difference tween an awesome high danger day learnin day ya know just get out ridgewalk dig a few pits, keep the slope angles down etc.
and being a wtf were they thinkin statistic can be a few feet maybe inches or that not so sweet spot of instability
i got caught in a water slide once because i was too fat so they kept sending 10 year olds down super fast to knock me through.
like clearing a stuck pipe
Kicked this one off in the Beavers early Jan 23 2012. Expected it to go and it did. I have been skiing just a short while (30 years) and have never seen a snowpack so volatile. It was as if electricity was pulsing through the pack and every step you took created a ripple...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50aL8mkYR2g
Learned some valuable lessons on this day...
I've been fully buried once and partially buried a few times. None were on impressive releases. Small features are just as dangerous as the big fracture lines everyone points to.
we got caught in one ascending a 3000 foot face, I stayed on my feet, was able to self arrest on the bed surface, my buddy went for a ride. Lost a pole and he never went bc skiing again, but other than that we were ok.
Once, inbounds on Over The Rainbow at Loveland. Early February I think, and the first day it was open for the year.
Crown was about 2ft, maybe 30-40yds across, ran only 100yds or so. Broke right about treeline, carried me 30-40ft, broke up on the side of the trail and deposited me on some rocks. Buddy of mine skied out of the leading edge.
Kinda killed that false sense of security about skiing "controlled" terrain. Went back up to take a gander afterwards. Weird to see my tracks from an earlier run from higher up just end at the crown, and then nothing but depth hoar and rocks for 100yds.
I think that speaks more to incompetence of a specific avalanche mitigation team than "inbounds terrain everywhere is dangerous."Quote:
Originally Posted by bendtheski
Maybe, but I'm not going to assume everything inbounds is perfectly safe just because there's been some skier compaction and bombs lobbed either.
Buried to my waist once sidecountry at Snowmass. Another was a big wet slide on Kebler pass. Numerous sluffs etc. I think my experiences with tree wells were even scarier
Shall we be able to inflate and carry a avalung ? Just a little bit I think we all could a little BITE.:cussing: