Everyone read this!

Mt_P0wDerJuNkIe

Mt_P0wDerJuNkIe

Active member
Read this and take note! Ive been seeing way to much retarted activity OB this season.

It’s time for my mid-winter rant about backcountry (I should say

sidecountry) behavior. I was inspired Saturday when I watch three people

ski an avalanche chute just outside the Snowbowl boundary together……at

the same time. This particular slope had a large skier-triggered

avalanche on it this year. I doubt these three riders read the avalanche

advisory, so I’m aiming my comments at Snow Bowl parents who may have

kids, teenagers or older, ducking the ropes or skiing out-of-bounds.

Once you leave the ski area; you’re on your own. The areas just outside

the ropes are backcountry. There is no slope management or patrol. You

should be prepared to deal with a burial or trauma. It would be a major

operation to extract someone from the Rankin Lake basin just outside

Snowbowl. Folks are treating this terrain as part of the ski area. It’s

not. Do you think people who would ski three at a time down an avalanche

chute know when the snow is stable and when it isn’t?

We just had a terrible incident in the sidecountry near Stevens Pass,

Washington. Bozeman experienced a major avalanche on Saddle Peak (where

everyone hikes) just outside Bridger’s boundary a couple of seasons ago

(fortunately no one was hurt). Everyone wants to ski the gnarly

terrain; the sidecountry is popular. Have you talked to your kids about

drugs, avalanches and skiing out-of-bounds?
 
yes, I used to work with Chris at Stevens. My friend Caleb died at Bridger last year, and I have lost a few more buddies in the past 4 years around Big Sky or Bridger to slides. Even if you know what you are doing, your partner might not. Be careful with the one life you have. No one wants to read about you in the paper.
 
As another example, here is a picture of a slide on the Shuksan arm at Baker last spring. The area was open that day, and the only reason people weren't skiing on it at that moment, was that hemispheres had just opened. They found debris 100 feet deep at the bottom, and a crown between 5 and 15 feet. Seriously huge slide, on an OPEN, avy controlled area.

click for bigguns

bakerSlide.jpg

 
Right now is definitely not a good time to be in the backcountry. I don't think profiling younger kids is really fair, though...I see a lot more dangerous behavior from older people, and it's repeated and confident. I was on a yurt skiing trip a month ago with a group of 50-60 year old guys that were so incredibly oblivious to avalanche danger (and snow safety in general) that I skied last down every slope we skied, and had to yell at them to get out of the runout zone on just about every run.

I think snow safety is preached enough to where the people who are actually going to pay attention to it are getting the message. Unfortunately there will always be instances where people have really bad luck (the guys at stevens and Caleb, for example), but that's a risk we all take when we go out.

So my new, revised idea on snow safety: stay out of avalanche-prone areas whenever possible, and absolutely avoid the people that will help trigger one on top of you. This is why you won't see me skiing Saddle Peak, ever (or skiing with crusty old-timers). We have all the information we need--avalanche reports updated every day, classes, an awesome outdoor community--but some people just aren't receptive. It's really unfortunate that blatant carelessness is something that can kill us, but it is a factor to take into consideration when you go out.
 
I forgot to mention i took this from the Missoula avalanches center site. Ya the people on saddle peak scare me. Place is a terrible accident waiting to happen.

 
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