How often have you backed away from a line?

[FigureEleven]

I have backed away from many lines. Just this last weekend a bunch of us backed away from our planned line because of stability. Sometimes you just don't know until you are in it. Plans are just that... and should always be subject to change in the BC.

Short of backing away, I often find myself skiing short safe zone pitches on a slope that I am not entirely confident in, as opposed to just ripping the gut.

[shera]

Short of backing away, I often find myself skiing short safe zone pitches on a slope that I am not entirely confident in, as opposed to just ripping the gut.

Cool concept. I have this frame of mind most of the time.

[schindlerpiste]

many lines:
The rope at Schindler's on a blizzard day.
Nutmeg
Borax (Cheech and Chong reference).

[Chinaski]

I have backed off quite a few, especially due to much conditions can change over the course of a day.

[StroupSkier]

A couple of years ago I backed of Tips and Tails in Wolverine Cirque.

We had already skied Bombay, Granny and Bronco and wanted some more. The rest of the guys skied Bronco again while I scouted T&T. It looked doable due to a huge snow year and the conditions were safe, however T&T slants skiers left and the run was not visible from where the stopped at the base of Bronco.

Due to lack of visual sight and radio, I backed off.

It still haunts me and hopefully I will get back to it this year

[grrrr]

I have backed off when I probably didn't need to and I have also failed to back off when I definitely should have.

I have also - and some of it is due to my comfort with different kinds of risk. I confess I get a bit of a thrill when I slough an open bowl and ride down with the flow, even though it should set off the warning bells a bit louder than it does. On the other hand, when a line involves rocks and cliffs, I err toward safety more than I need to.

[Skid Lux]

If i hadnt backed away i would be dead 5 times over.

[skibuminwyo]

i have been known to back off lines quite a few times. my big thing (since i do more of it) is feeling that churny gut feeling out climbing, either rock or ice, and just bailing. that gut feeling has saved me quite a few times, where SOMETHING was off, even though i may not know exactly what it was. i remember climbing in montana on some crappy crag, and getting that feeling, throwing a bail biner, and getting out of there. as we were hiking out, we watched a huge rockfall, right on the route we would have been on. kinda freaky....would it have gone if we had climbed on it? possibly, but maybe not...better to just be out of it.

[iceman]

Pretty much at least once every day I ski, lately. That could have something to do witht e places I'm skiing as well as my increasing sense of my own mortality.

Green runs don't count!

[sandytheskier]

I have backed off of one at the cirque a few times, which continually pisses me off. I should have backed out of a line I skied off of mt. ogden. Glad I didn't though. Prolly one of my epic favs.

[midget]

Yup, all the time....I back off and say....hey you go shred the shit out of that, I'm going over there and taking a photo of it. I'm just a pussy.

[gh444]

I've been stuck in lines INBOUNDS at Crested Butte that I wished I could have backed out of. Does that count?

where?

-aaron

[BakerBoy]

Short of backing away, I often find myself skiing short safe zone pitches on a slope that I am not entirely confident in, as opposed to just ripping the gut.

Echo what SheRa said. A few JHole folk and myself got on top of a easily accessed sidecountry line at Baker last year in March on a big day, and I decided to ski cut the entrance. Well, it went a couple feet deep, we decided to still ski the general line, but took the super duper pussy way down. We were at the bottom, hiking out, and watched 3 snowboarders drop into a sick-gnar chute about 50 feet to the left of where we dropped. First one slabbed himself out, and rode it all the way down about 500 vert to the bottom. Buried up to his waist. His buddy, ever the bright individual, dropped the same line, but over a couple feet, and released the rest of the snow. Got caught in some of his sluff, tumbled for awhile, but rode out the bottom... and kept going right by his buddy who was still buried. The third guy poked his way down. The 2 patrollers watching the whole thing pulled all their passes for the rest of the year...

Long story short, backing out or mitigating the danger can be the best idea ever. It's the easy little shit than can catch up to you and crush you...

[Jack Burton]

Definetely made some bad decisions in first few years skiing BC.

First time turning back was a few years ago on first winter overnight trip, we headed up under snowy skies, missed our route but found a safe place to sleep. Woke up with sunny clear skies but route to chutes was through a valley with north facing side already sluffing at dawn with no wind and < 20 dergee temps. Decided to come back another day.