Avalanche took my pole

N

nickwm21

Member
i was making some turns in the fresh pow down the top of three sisters in alpine on saturday when is started to slide.. it caused my skis to slip out from under me and it took me down with it... as i was sliding my face was burried, i lost a ski and a pole, and hit two trees... it stopped where the sisters flatten out.. i wasnt covered too bad but my friend coming behind me was completly burried the snow... i hiked up and got my ski but i never found my pole... so lame i loved those poles

that was the first time the snow movement was large enough to knock me over and carry me down... not much of an avalanche but it was one and it was scary

so if u skied sisters this weekend and noticed it was ice at the top and deep heavy pow at the bottom.. or u hit a pole... thats my doing
 
i dropped my pole off scotts chair on saturday and then decided to leave and proceed to a. rear end someone and b. run for my life as someone rear ended me.....

where is three sisters? ive skied a lot of alpine but never once looked at a trail map
 
when going up summit chair it is to the right of the chair past the face and waterfall... its three steep gullys

yea i had to ski with one pole the rest of the day... my left leg is so sore because i i had to throw my body insted of pole planting everytime i turned left
 
it seems like 3 sisters slides every time it snows. It sucks cause then it's all icy too.
 
i didnt want to pay the 6 bucks and wait in the long presidents day weekend rental line... i knew i had some extra poles laying around at home
 
ive slid down the sisters it sucks because your ass hits all the rocks under the snow as it grags you down. my buddy lost a pole below the little road under summit where all those little rocks are. it was funny because they were these dope ass carbon poles or what ever and he only had them for like a day.
 
I was skiing out in Desolation Wilderness once. We climbed up and skied Price Peak. That thing is GNAR. Just one huge fat steep powder bowl.

Anyway, the snow broke free and just this giant thing hurdled at me. It sounded like when your surfing and the wave is about to break on top of you. Scary fuck.

Anyway, it went right under me and I slid down that suckker. Luckily it didnt bury me, Instead I was on top of the flow..

I lost both my poles in that, as I let go of them and the straps ripped off of my wrists due to the sheer force of the snow.

It was crazy dude. Scariest thing ever.
 
wow thats intense. luckily ive been in no avys but unfortunately i havent really skid terrain thats dangerous.
 
Yeah.. that shit was freaky dude.

Hella sick though. Powder so deep.. oh man.

Dangerous as fuck though because buerocractical red tape would make it so they couldnt get a heli in there to save your ass...
 
crazy... i was gonna go up to castle peak this winter without doing an avalanche training thing but i guess i should get one now
 
Amazing, is a helicopter rescue your back up plan when you're not in wilderness area?
 
You dont think about rescue when your doing backcountry like that.

You want to just be flat out confident nothing goes wrong.

Just make sure you have a Beacon and an Avalung Just in case.
 
ok not trying to be a dick but every line i drop into , every cliff i drop i have a plan on where im going if it slides and if i broke my arm, leg neck or whatev how im gonna get the fuck out of there.
 
I do think about rescue, but using a helicopter isn't something I'm depending on. First off, weather conditions have to be good so they can fly. Second you're going to have to be able to get ahold of them so you better be carrying a sat phone, because you can't depend on a cell phone. Plus your GPS to send them coordinates. Third you have to be in an area that a helicopter can land, so no deep canyons. And there has to be a clearing. Unless you're planning on packing them up to the top of the ridge.

So yeah, Its an option, but not one you should be banking on.
 
Yeah, but sometimes you never know how the snow is going to break, so you have to adapt to whatever is thrown at you.

When it comes to cliffs I definitely agree. I check 2,3 maybe even 4 times on the landing and how the takeoff would throw me before jumping.

As for where I was skiing, it was a huge wide open bowl. There were no cliffs, and the closest trees were way far away. Far enough away that the snowbreak stopped before it even got close to them.

Me and the couple of guys I was skiing with hadnt a clue as to how the snowpack would react to skiing on it, but we knew it was really freakin deep, so we were pretty well prepared with our beacons, shovels, and we each had an avalung just in case.

I dropped in, took about 3 turns,then made a pretty sharp turn to regulate speed because I didnt want to just straightline the thing. I wasnt thinking it would cause the snowpack to break, but unfortunately thats exacly what it did. I popped out of that, and made about 2 or 3 more turns and started to hear a rumbling that sounded like a giant wave about to break on top of me.

The pack swept me up, and luckily it was sierra cement, and heavy enough that I just kinda floated on top and didnt sink under too far. I think I only sunk under about 2 or 3 feet or something, because I could see light through the snow and It didnt take long to be dug out.

When all was said and done, I still had to be dug out, but thanks to my beacon, my group, who had seen the whole thing go down, was able to locate me and dig me out pretty quickly.

It was scary as fuck, but thats the risk you take when you go skiing in a freakin wilderness area, where there are no AV controls nor is there anyone around for miles and miles..
 
Or you can dig a pit, or not ski a wide open bowl. But hey each there own, I like my life.
 
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