should you buy an ABS pack? Mine saved my life today, I vote yes.

[Kid Rock]

kaleb,

glad you are ok but captain kirk is right, jones pass above the tree line with your conditions is russian roulette. I know right where you were and you are right, very gentle slope, i ve hammered the run out of that slide many times.

these stories always start the same way, "ive been across this spot hundreds of times".

any given sunday....literally in your case.

"If you listen to the mountain, it will tell you when to climb" Ed Viesturs. Mountaineer.

in the end, it's such a stupid selfish way to go out. It's why I won't turbo. I do enough dumb sh?t already...

 

[Snowfishin]

Thanks for sharing your story with the masses! Glad to hear a happy ending, and am becoming more impressed with these airbags everyday!

 

[PJ-Hunter]

Jesus! Glad you made it out ok. I don't really wanna go to a friends memorial service, EVER! So get a damn pack. Don't cry that you don't have money, if you have a turbo or a mod sled, then get a gawddamn pack. Small taters if you stop to think that one of your buddies would have to look your loved ones in the eyes and say "We lost him, we tried to find/revive him but there was nothing we could do." "I'm so sorry."

Any of my riding buddies wanna tell my two boys that Daddy is dead? I certainly don't want to be on the end looking at a distraught wife or girlfriend. BTW, I do have a pack.

 

[TIM]

time for a refill?

glad you came out ok. That had to be an adrenaline overload.

tim

 

[SilverGriz]

Thanks for sharing your story. Glad to hear you made it out safely.

 

[ManBearPig]

Great news that you are fine and out. Scary stuff. Good gear that saves lives is worth it. Brian and I were riding around the trees over here yesterday and noticed how the the snow was cracking in the mildest situations.

 

[backcountryislife]

Glad you are alright bud but it looks like more then a small navigational error being anywhere near that slide path in those conditions. The ABS pack might have saved your bacon, but if you are as experienced as you are always saying you are and were using that experience you would have been no where near there in those conditions. Riding BLINDLY above treeline in Colorado in those conditions is easily as dangerous and stupid as highmarking above your buddies. You were not an innocent bystander here, this was not a freak accident.

Stoked the pack worked, Glad you made it out and I hope your sled makes it out in one piece.

No matter how many things we do right... all it takes is ONE big mistake.

The path I was TRYING to head on would have been nowhere near any bigger loaded slopes, this place that I ended up in I would not have gone had I not been stupid enough to try to navigate above treeline in the snow.

Saying it's not a freak accident... a bit overboard I feel, we were on the edge of the snowpack, riding slowly, and the remote trigger was a pretty long ways away, even on a normal GOOD vis high danger day I would not have expected the trigger to have happened from our actions. That said... I didn't post this up expecting praise, I F'd up BIG TIME, PERIOD. I'll learn from the huge mistake, and hopefully, so will others. I know how things work around here, I expect a good lashing for putting myself in this kind of danger unknowingly, but if it can help someone else see danger somewhere they perhaps previously did not, then it's worth it.

Btw, I had never been to this spot before, been below it, but never here.

 

[xrated]

Jesus! Glad you made it out ok. I don't really wanna go to a friends memorial service, EVER! So get a damn pack. Don't cry that you don't have money, if you have a turbo or a mod sled, then get a gawddamn pack. Small taters if you stop to think that one of your buddies would have to look your loved ones in the eyes and say "We lost him, we tried to find/revive him but there was nothing we could do." "I'm so sorry."

Any of my riding buddies wanna tell my two boys that Daddy is dead? I certainly don't want to be on the end looking at a distraught wife or girlfriend. BTW, I do have a pack.

I don't have a mod sled or even a new stock sled....BUT after reading this I am going to start cutting out beers until I have saved the money for a pack. It's gonna take awhile and it's gonna be no fun, but widowing my wife and leaving my kids sounds even less fun.

 

[NorthMNSledder]

Glad to hear you made it out safely. Thanks for sharing the story.......maybe it will save another life in the process!!

 

[TIM]

x
finish your sled first and than go for the pack.
very inside joke for years about x. and it does seem like years.

tim

 

[milehighassassin]

Good post Kaleb! Glad you are alright!

So how do you go about looking for a burried sled? Metal detector?

 

[skidooboy]

Brother, i am glad you are ok. glad you took heed in mike duffy's class. we all took it in michigan last night. WE WILL BE BUYING AVI PACKS. especially after reading this. ski

cut and pasted from my dootalk post.....

awesome class!!! i would take it again in a heartbeat. i want to thank Ron for putting this together for the saftey of the whole michigan crew. would also like to take my hat off to Mike Duffy for not giving up even though the weather fought him from colorado to our location in grand rapids michigan.

for those that couldnt make it, to show you how dedicated to OUR SAFTEY Mike is.... his flight was cancelled from chicago to GR, he rented an auto grabbed what he could for his props (the airport wouldnt give him all his baggage), jumped in and drove from chcago to GR in a snowstorm. made it to the location, and taught the complete course. one word, OUTSTANDING!!!

thanks again for all that attended, your friends, family, and thier friends and family, will thank you later.

as said above, this is a MUST for ALL BACKCOUNTRY USERS. ski

 

[CatWoman]

Thanks much for sharing Kaleb! Things can, and do, go horribly wrong at times....even when we have the best of intentions. The one time I almost spent the night on the mountain, was a day that turned into a blizzard and we turned around to head home (I would have been fine due to the amount of stuff I carry). I'm happy you are still with us. I'm sure being able to snuggle up with Abby and your pup has a whole new meaning to it after this.

We ALL need to hear these kind of stories from those whom are fortunate enough to still be with us to tell them. I feel this does a LOT in helping to educate others. I'm not saying that it takes precedence over any practice or training.....just that first hand accounts hit home with people. There is a DVD out..."The Fine Line"...hearing the first hand accounts in that made me squirm in my seat (write up about it in the Avy Section).

Things like this let us know how trivial other things are in life.

Again....thank you for sharing, and documenting like you have!

 

[TIM]

mile high

we have formed a probe line in the past to look for buried sleds. and than it was found 10 feet under upside down. started second pull. But the probe line was the only way we could think of finding the buried sleds.

tim

 

[EagleRiverDee]

Thanks for posting. The part that impressed me most is that the avy pack inflated under the snow. I had always envisioned that you had to inflate before you got caught up in the avy. You've educated me a bit more on the product.

The way the bag inflates, it looks like angels wings. Looks like the angels looked out for you!

 

[cpatts2000]

Glad that you are ok, man you are lucky. Thanks for sharing your story.

For everyone else, don't just go out and buy a pack, get some training as well. Around 30% of avy deaths are from trauma, a pack will not help in this. Packs are great but GET TRAINING.

 

[backcountryislife]

The shape I would be in had I gone with the sled...

It looks a lot better than I thought it would.

 

[Sxrlar]

Damn Kaleb, I about crapped when I saw your post. Glad you are alright! Thanks for sharing your story.

Ski, we took Mike's class in November here in Wi, a must for all backcountry riders in my humble flatlander opinion!

 

[SledsWest]

The shape I would be in had I gone with the sled...

It looks a lot better than I thought it would.

So, whats wrong with it? It just has the BCIL mod. Looking good!

 

[94fordguy]

Wow, Glad to see you're ok and here to tell the story.

Hopefully sharing your experience will help to prevent other accidents in the future.