this weekend is not looking good. But the next one, if the weather is good will work. Keep in touch and we will get er done. The more people the better (within reason).
Sketchy avy condition lately in my area to be hitting much of the good stuff on the 14ers, watch your back. Been getting some Slides in odd places & releases where tesing looked better than usual. I spend most of my days about 6 miles from G/T, so the snowpack is gonna be pretty comparable.
Be careful.
(and keep in mind, this is coming from a stupid sledneck, imagine what a cautious intellingent person would say!!!)
These scuba 'gapers' were scouting a place to dive. These aboloni divers (da pros') told them there were great white sharks in the water and not to dive that day. The gapers decided to dive in anyway.
What happened. Dude got munched on by da shark.
Now I've been hiking and climbing for a while now, and the most important thing I can think of is to know when to turn around. This doesn't mean I won't start out on a hike I know might be risky. All I'm saying is I'm still going to try this one, but I'm not afraid to turn around and will pick routes that accomodate the sketch. I'm freaking terrified of avalanches!
Thanks for the beta. Still going to give er, but I'll remember the beta and most importantly bring my humility on the hike.
Slides this year are going BIG and DEEP. I was trying to get to the top of Frankenstein Chute in the 2nd Creek Cirque on Berthoud Pass. I chose the safest flatest route to gain the ridge but was called of course by a small (steep) headwall which had a few prominent rock butresses that I knew would bring saftey from any slides. Plus I could see grass and rocks so any slide was going to be small and manageable.
It came without warning and I started sliding over those rocks. Luckily I was able to swim to the side to escape but when all came to the fracture was over 100 yards long and 12 ft deep. The fracture was about 3ft. deep above me but grew to 12ft. further out on the headwall. Slabs the size of cars broke off. If I were a few feet further out on the headwall I really don't know if I could have survived. If anyone were with me it would have been bad. The thing that really sucked was the terrain that was uncovered by the slide. I would have been stuck on one of those butresses if I hadn't been swept away.
Avy's are apart of life in the mountains. We all probably know friends who have been taken by them. Situations escalate so fast. It's normally not the first bad decision that kills you... it just leads to it. It's easy to sit in our houses and say we'll choose a safe route or back off if it feels wrong. But after a 4 hour drive and a few hours of hiking/climbing/skinning it's harder to choose to back off. Self-discipline is crucial.
I use to work with a guy on Rainier who always asked me if I were 300 feet from the summit of Everest, and he said turn around, would I be able to. I always said sure no problem... cause I knew I wouldn't go if I said other wise. Years later the question still lingers and I'm sure it always will until I get that call. The older I get the less chances I take but still can find myself in bad situations. It's a thrill to find that edge, stop, and look around. Just like this last slide. I told myself it was only a few feet... I'll be up it in a few minutes...
Check out CAIC website, the avalanches this year are happening in unexpected places. Summit County is known for their wind load areas. There has been alot of natural avalanches in places I haven't seen slide in 10 years. Avalanches don't care if your safe or willing to turn around, wait till the spring their are great descents with corn snow.
thanks for the good input. Skied Aspen Highlands friday and that place was sick!
I find this difficult balance to play. People like y'all talk about how sketchy the backcountry is, and yet, you go skiing. As I sit mainly on my couch typing about getting it done, and only actually do once or twice a season in the institutional setting I find a conundrum in place. There is always a reason not to go. The snow is too sketchy, too cold, too warm, too many people, bad equipment... The reality is that people die. We lost two in bounds this year. Vail lost two only a little off the resort. Sledders, who knows how many this year. It was the inbounds people that really got to me. They weren't trying to prove anything or be core, they were just ignorant and had bad luck.
All I can say is that I may die as well. But I have a gut that tells me when to turn around, what is safe and what isn't, and I've made my peace with the fact if my gut is wrong I'll go out doing something I truly love. Want to talk about sketchy shit... try soloing 5th class rock or ice, or dropping a 5th class waterfall.
It amazes me that only one person responded wanting to go. The rest told me it was sketchy. Windwaterrock... thanks I really appreciate your response. As for the rest of y'all I appreciate the conern, but really despise the lack of specific beta. You guys are like the crew that sit at the put in of a 5th + class drop telling the dude about to drop it how sketchy it is, while you have no intention of dropping it yourself cause you dropped something else upstream. That's fine, but if your going to do something why not run safety at the bottom of the drop.
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