I’ve learned a lot in my life from observing the mistakes of others, and trying not to repeat them. This has, in my view, saved me a lot of grief. Today, others can learn from my mistakes. I made many, in sequence, which caused me to get hit by a fast moving wet slide in steep terrain. It was a very close call, as well as a wake-up call. Follow along and take mental notes – they could help you out in a big way. Further note that very few of my actions today were informed by ignorance. Rather, personal stupidity was the culprit. I’m not including pictures in this article because I want people to read it and learn, rather than simply look at the pictures.
Complacency – Following a 3 foot dump of snow in prior days, today was the first day that brought cloudless skies from sunrise, with resultant, immediate heat. While the snow had settled nicely following the storm’s conclusion on Tuesday, Wednesday was cloudy until late in the day, keeping wet slides to a relative minimum. That meant that little true snow flushing had yet occurred. Additionally, I was aware that it was going to be a hot day, and that south facing slopes would be particularly unsafe.
Overconfidence – Despite knowing that south facing slopes would be highly suspect, I figured that I could pull off my ski descent before the avalanches fired up, if I began early enough. That was probably true enough, but I showed up half an hour after the starting time I’d chosen. Further, with deep, relatively slow trail breaking, I was slower than I’d planned as well. I’d already chosen a ‘turn around time’ at which point I wanted to be heading down, in order to avoid any avalanche issues.
Ignoring Personal Guidelines – I ignored my ‘turn around’ timeframe. It’s that simple. Mentally, I told myself that the safe window could be extended by 30-45 minutes. I knew better, but convinced myself otherwise. Why?
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