Whoops: my sixty second helicopter rescue

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Originally Posted by Summit

Not any 4000ft+ techy tubes accessible with a 2000ft skin from a lift in CO... even if it wasn't SW facing, low tide or Jan.

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I don't think his point was that accessibility would be the same--obviously he was comparing what the response would be to a guy putting himself somewhere like that. I admit, it's really easy to second guess, but the way I read his report it sounded like he knew at least some of his (many) problems were likely to occur, or at least real possibilities. And maybe if his priority had been a quick, safe descent instead of photos and video things might have been different.

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Originally Posted by Dexter Rutecki

I have to wonder if knowing that you could just call in a heli and get pulled out to safety enabled some of this decision making.

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Hi there, sorry for the late reply, my ongoing dad duties keep me off the internet a lot these days. So, briefly:

No, the option of calling a helicopter has never in my life been a part of my decision making process, and to be completely honest I was 100% ignorant of the potential cost of the rescue until doing some hasty online research after the fact. I asked for a rescue because I thought there was a genuine risk to my own life if I were to try and get myself out under my own steam (a situation, I hasten to add, that I have never been in in my life), and I value my continued existence a little more than living in debt for a few years to pay off whatever the costs might have been.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by the "what made you think this would work" question, given that (I assume) you weren't actually in the Chamonix valley around the time, you weren't really familiar with the specific snowpack conditions present, and thus, cannot really say with any certainty what aspects or altitudes were safe to be skiing on on that day. Please understand, I'm not trying to make any claims about my own levels of experience or expertise, but I cannot allow it to be said that every other team - many of whom, I'm happy to admit, are objectively better ski mountaineers than me in every way imaginable - who were skiing similar lines on similar aspects both across the massif and on the same ridgeline as my descent, in the days leading up to, on the same day, and the days following this episode, are all in the wrong, and that their decision making process was all wrong.

I can do nothing but agree with the fact that because I ended the day dangling from a wire under a helicopter that it was, ultimately, the wrong place to be, but in my defence, after viewing the line from afar for, not just specifically the few weeks leading up to my decision to try and ski it, but also the preceding ten years, the exit couloir was in the best condition that it has been since the winter of 2012/13. As it turns out, 12 hours is a long time in the mountains, and what I thought was a safe-enough "window of ignorance" between the last time I saw the exit and the moment that I came to actually ski it, turned out to be more action-packed than I had banked on.

For what it's worth, conditions all across my corner of the Alps at the moment (and since the middle of January) are some of the best for the time of year that they've been in a decade, and there have been repeated descents and attempts of some of the biggest and most impressive lines available across all aspects, including a load of esoteric 5.4 and 5.5 on the toponeige scale, which very rarely come into condition.

That's intense. I also don't understand the initial animosity. Seemed TR worthy to me, even if it wasn't "successful" by mission completion standards.

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Originally Posted by skaredshtles

They almost always disqualify you if you die mountaineering, though, don't they?

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Mine excludes it. You do fun stuff? No, we don't cover that.

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Originally Posted by peds

As it turns out, 12 hours is a long time in the mountains, and what I thought was a safe-enough "window of ignorance" between the last time I saw the exit and the moment that I came to actually ski it, turned out to be more action-packed than I had banked on.

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This is the great service you’ve given to those of us who use this forum to learn. Yes, easy to say from the keyboard that conditions are constantly changing in the alpine. But harder to admit to the heuristic trap of tracking something for years only to find it has dramatically changed overnight. I wouldn’t spend much time on the Bros who need to sound tough on the Internet. Thanks for your honesty and humility. If I were to quibble, I might remind you that it doesn’t matter what others are doing and getting away with on similar elevations and aspects. But I sense you already know that. Keep going.



Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

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They almost always disqualify you if you die mountaineering, though, don't they?

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Ah, but that begs the question "is this mountaineering?" (See appropriate TGR thread)


This seems a well thought out and researched attempt, that didn't end as planned. Unless there was some way to check the exit the morning you skied it, and saw that it slide, I don't see any fault in your plan. It appears that checking it was not an option due to time/logistics, so I don't see even that as a fault. The mountains hold surprises for us, some good some bad. It is not always possible to know exactly what is below us when skiing such a committing line, we can only gather so much beta. While nothing like what you did, we skied a line in the Dolomites that involved a blind rappel. It was skied 48 hours earlier and was in excellent condition, so we went for it...it was fantastic. There was always a possibility that conditions could have changed radically in 48 hours, but no reason to believe so. We just had to go with the best beta at the time. We scored, the OP didn't...thats life in the alpine.

At the end of the day you made wise choices and all ended well.

Just catching up on TR's and caught this one. More good Peds! Thanks, glad it all worked out.

And, yeah, following tracks can always get you in shite. Skiing Zinal a few weeks ago and with all the parapente folks flying about I certainly gave following someone else's track considerable thought.