I'm not a dog owner, but two of my friends that I ski with from time to time bring their dogs with them every time they go. Today we were skiing Crescent Chute on Round Top (near kirkwood) and I witnessed one of the worst falls ever.
A little backround for those of you not familiar with the Crescent: About 20-30 feet wide and a little over 500 feet of vert in the chute itself, 45-50 degrees. The chute starts off the summit on a hanging snowfield with deadly exposure on all sides and makes a gradual left turn (shaped like a crescent moon). The line needs to be taken seriously. Today the snow was nearly ideal. Not deep pow, but very dry and still fresh. The chute seemed to have slid on monday, but had been refilled with wind deposits.
The dogs worried me from the start, as they played at the feet of the first skier as he made his way down the snowfield into the chute. A blown turn at this point could be your last ever. The first skier skied halfway down the hanging snowfield and then entered the chute 1/3 of the way down and skied a 100 or so feet very cautiously, then stopped at the turn to shoot some video. Two dogs, one of which was his, and another who's owner was still up top, accompanied him down. I skied second and was planning to ski the whole chute non stop at relatively high speed. I was concerned about the dogs, but their owners didn't seem worried. Helmet cam rolling, I entered the chute cautiosly and upon finding the conditions nearly perfect I began to open it up a little. The snow began sloughing, and I worked my way from right to left to avoid being hit. As I neared the turn I took a quick look back at the slough accelerating towards me. Ready to straight run the remainder of the chute onto the snowfield below, as I turned my head back down the hill I saw one of the dogs jump out in front of me from the side of the chute where skier one was filming. Startled by the dog I slowed abruptly and was hit lightly by edge of my slough. I was knocked off my feet but able to ski out of it unharmed. The dog got clobbered though. The next thing I remember seeing is the dog explode out the bottom of the chute in the slough, tomahawking at close to 50 mph. Head, tail, head, tail, for almost 1000 feet. (If you remember McGovern's fall in Focused, this put it to shame)Luckily the dog was unhurt. I'm pretty sure I was more shaken up by the event than the dog was.
The dog which fell today has been in two avalanches this year alone, both of which she triggered. I do everything in my power to be as careful as possible when backcountry skiing, especially on high consequence lines and I'm very particular about who I'll ski with. Up until today I had never really minded the dogs coming with us, but now I don't want anything to do with them.
What do you all think about dogs in the backcountry? Would you take your pooch on a high consequence big line?
I'M SORRY THIS POST IS SO LONG.
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