another death in the mountains

sad.....

i will tell you all these stories of people dying in bounds this year has really started to scare me. my biggest fear of serious injury when skiing is no longer botching a 20 ft. drop, but rather skiing alone in the trees on a deep day, and either ending up upside down in the pow (suffocation) or incapacitated in one manner or another (frozen).... both could happen so easily and if you are alone there is not much you can do.

stay safe everybody.

Trees, tree wells, even just regular open pow deepness...all too effectively dangerous.

As someone who has survived a head-on tree accident thanks to a helmet, I try to express to people I know (and sometimes don't know) to not take trees lightly. Usually they get wide eyed from the story but then don't heed the warning. At least wear a helmet, but helmets only get you so far and don't protect from the damage to neck and nerves.

be safe out there.

there's no command Z in nature... some stuff is final.

Amen brother.

I've spent the deepest days this season digging out my friends (and total strangers).
Rather than shredding carelessly - because my friends tend to get stuck in the deep stuff :(

After getting caught board first into a moderate sized tree well on a deep day (bad decision with a blind, shitty turn),
I've turned into vigilante rescue patrol.
I bring up my avy safety gear (shovel, beacon, probe, telescoping pole, and recco tags out the wazoo) if its more than thigh deep.

I still get to shred quite a bit, dont get me wrong. And deep is fun but only if its light and the pitch is steep enough to keep you going.

Maybe 4 or 5 years ago I was skiing at Squaw and it had seen decent snowfall the night before. Headwall was completely skied out by mid-morning, but the face (right under the lift-line) was getting some incredible windloading. Steep, fast, and soft on every run - good times. I did about four laps on it in mid-afternoon (2-3pm-ish) and then got in the funitel.

As I was riding up, I looked toward where I was skiing. There was a dark line across the top and I was trying to figure out what it was. Then I realized the lift was stopped and no one was skiing it. It was 3' crown wall that I could see from the funitel! The whole slope, that was effectively all skied out, had slid just minutes after skiing it four times. Goes to show you, you can never underestimate nature.