Question on hucking
I took avy I today, and some of my companions asked me (away from the supervision of our instructors so I only conjectured) what happens if you are alone, watching your buddy from above huck a 20-footer, and the impact triggers a slide.
We agreed the options were A) huck it into his bombhole onto an apparently recently stabilized snowpack (assuming activity is attributed to the top several inches of the snowpack as it was at Berthoud today); B) ski around the cliff, which for our purposes we will assume involves skiing a similar snowpack and aspect; C) descend your ascent, even if it delays searching A LOT.
I would probably say C (not sure, the other options seem to jeopardize your own safety, and thus the entire rescue, but if the descent of your skin route takes you significant time, is it worththe risk?) But it brought to mind the thought of hucking as a function of perceived instability. How much more stress on the snowpack does a 20 ft. huck place than making fast turns? How do you gauge the feasibility of hucking vs. just making turns?
This is a serious avy jong question, I know, but I'm still trying to figure out the connection between what your pit(s) and/or recent activity tell you and what's ok to ski/do.
What signs of the snowpack do you look for that tell you it's ok to ski a steep cliffed out line that you've been looking at but not to send the cliff on that line?
OR: is it that if you're comfortable skiing the line, you should be comfortable placing additional stress on the snowpack by hucking something in most BC enthusiasts' comfort zone (15-30ish?)?
Last edited by Max Gosey; 02-18-2006 at 10:48 PM.
Days on snow 06-07: 3
Days behind a boat summer 2006: 24
"Coming here and asking whether you need wider skis is like turning up at the Neverland Ranch and asking Michael if he'd like to come to Tampa with the kids" -bad roo.
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