Sunday march 13 will be a day i remeber for quite some time. I was able to get a full weekend of riding in. We even left early enough friday that the avy report wasn't released for the area, and i never checked later in the weekend. I told myself, you will know what the report would say when you get out there. And i did know, but i ignored my own warnings to hit a powder covered hill with no tracks. A slope that i have brought down about 4 years ago. So yes i made a bunch of mistakes. I even told the group i was with, that the slope could slide and i hit it anyway. I thought i would be far enough over to not be in the danger zone. I was wrong.
A little background, i took my first avy class in 98, read my first book on avy's in 93 after dealing with a couple of slides in alaska when i lived there.
One of my best friends is an avalanche intstructor. I am typically a real good guy when it comes to slides. To the point of almost to cautious. atleast according to some of my buddies. Well i decided to not be such a puzzy this year, and i do believe that was another mistake. I was getting to the point i knew what avy snow felt like on my sled. Which is a good thing, to me avy snow does feel different than non avy snow. People were always asking me if a slope would slide. I can't take a motor apart but i can figure out slides. I love the power of slides and i know slides just don't happen. they have a trigger mechanism. Well i hit the trigger mechanism.
Basically i ran up this trench\chute and once i entered i knew the snow was conducive to sliding.( i have caused to many to not know what the snow feels like). I got out of the trench when i could and went over a convex knob to get out of the trench. I thought to my self, that was not good, but didn't think about it anymore. I got on top of a finger ridge and looked into the next bowl to see how it looked. I than noticed cracking and slabs forming all around me. Luckily from kayaking i know what it feels like to be moving and not going anywhere.(surfing holes) It felt like i was surfing on my sled. I thought of pulling the abs cord but i saw my way out and went for it.
getting out of the slide was the only thing going thru my mind. I knew i could get out and nothing else mattered. After i powered off of the first slab, i was catching the next slab and watching the slab that was in front of me pull away from me. I hammered the throttle like a cornice jump and jumped off of the slab into the area between slabs and than the debris pile was pilling up right in front of me. I hammered it again to jump thru the debris pile and just missed a big snag coming out of the debris pile. I landed hard enought to have my chest hit the handlebars and push them forward. ( thank god for tekvest). I was than out of the slide and sidehiling right below it looking for a way to go and a place to renter the slide, because i didn't know if anyone was buried. Luckily no one was. as i was sidehilling below it i noticed a big snag being whipped around like a rag doll. This one would of hurt.
the main reason i was trying to reneter the slide, was this. there is a guy i ride with occasionally that follows me where ever i go. He follows way to close. So i assumed he was following me up this trench. which he did. but he waited until i turned out and than went up. He ended up jumping up thru the crack and went out the top of the hill. You really should wait until the person is off of the slope not just turned out. Luckily no one was buried. And i was able to get my wake up call.
looking at the pics, it is obvious this hill was ripe to slide. I let my powderlust get in the way. Hopefully others can learn from my mistakes, becasue i can thing of better ways to get a wake up call.
the snag in 1713 and 1714 is the one i missed onthe way out of the debri pile. i was up in the trees of 1714 when it broke.
tim
A little background, i took my first avy class in 98, read my first book on avy's in 93 after dealing with a couple of slides in alaska when i lived there.
One of my best friends is an avalanche intstructor. I am typically a real good guy when it comes to slides. To the point of almost to cautious. atleast according to some of my buddies. Well i decided to not be such a puzzy this year, and i do believe that was another mistake. I was getting to the point i knew what avy snow felt like on my sled. Which is a good thing, to me avy snow does feel different than non avy snow. People were always asking me if a slope would slide. I can't take a motor apart but i can figure out slides. I love the power of slides and i know slides just don't happen. they have a trigger mechanism. Well i hit the trigger mechanism.
Basically i ran up this trench\chute and once i entered i knew the snow was conducive to sliding.( i have caused to many to not know what the snow feels like). I got out of the trench when i could and went over a convex knob to get out of the trench. I thought to my self, that was not good, but didn't think about it anymore. I got on top of a finger ridge and looked into the next bowl to see how it looked. I than noticed cracking and slabs forming all around me. Luckily from kayaking i know what it feels like to be moving and not going anywhere.(surfing holes) It felt like i was surfing on my sled. I thought of pulling the abs cord but i saw my way out and went for it.
getting out of the slide was the only thing going thru my mind. I knew i could get out and nothing else mattered. After i powered off of the first slab, i was catching the next slab and watching the slab that was in front of me pull away from me. I hammered the throttle like a cornice jump and jumped off of the slab into the area between slabs and than the debris pile was pilling up right in front of me. I hammered it again to jump thru the debris pile and just missed a big snag coming out of the debris pile. I landed hard enought to have my chest hit the handlebars and push them forward. ( thank god for tekvest). I was than out of the slide and sidehiling right below it looking for a way to go and a place to renter the slide, because i didn't know if anyone was buried. Luckily no one was. as i was sidehilling below it i noticed a big snag being whipped around like a rag doll. This one would of hurt.
the main reason i was trying to reneter the slide, was this. there is a guy i ride with occasionally that follows me where ever i go. He follows way to close. So i assumed he was following me up this trench. which he did. but he waited until i turned out and than went up. He ended up jumping up thru the crack and went out the top of the hill. You really should wait until the person is off of the slope not just turned out. Luckily no one was buried. And i was able to get my wake up call.
looking at the pics, it is obvious this hill was ripe to slide. I let my powderlust get in the way. Hopefully others can learn from my mistakes, becasue i can thing of better ways to get a wake up call.
the snag in 1713 and 1714 is the one i missed onthe way out of the debri pile. i was up in the trees of 1714 when it broke.
tim
. Be careful from here on out, have a talk with your buddy (maybe he gets it now) about staying off the hill while you're climbing.
There is so much made about how ballsy
one has to be to have fun, and negative peer pressure can and does do it. I think if we were all COMPLETELY honest there would not be one person that could come on and say" not me"
Granted we do need to push to become a better rider, but with the high powered sleds we have, we are in places 10 years ago that simply were impossible to get to. And we are not spending 1-2 hours running a hill to conquer it. 2-3 runs and were over. This could easily lead to overconfidence that can also lead to running without checking. You have a great post going here Thanks Terry
