Close calls and more

So, here is a long one since I havn´t been putting anything in for ca. 3 weeks! In my last post I talked about how we need to be careful out there and this post definitely proofs my case!!!

I had one of the cats (snowcats that is) breakdown three times with one group and it was pissing me off, but I realised that having breakdown in a cat isn´t my biggest worries. I had a group of eleven plus James as an assistant guide! We were heading up Epiphany (a run at work) and it was the same as always, shallow on the ridge proper but lots of snow as we reached the summit. I was standing on the top with a guest (who has among few things summited Everest) and the third was on the last part in the deeper snow...not penetrating anymore into the shallow ridge snow. All of a sudden the third guy screams "AVALANCHE" and I look back and watch the whole ski run slide away! No whump´s and no cracking sounds like these things most often produce. And my heart went into my pants so to speak!

The slide started about 1 meter away from my up track on a 25°slope incline which is not steep at all! The slide was a size 3, which is big enough to take a pick-up truck and totally destroy it. If the slope had pulled a bit further back then it would have taken the three of us with it.The first guest and I standing on the top. You can see that the slope is not steep there but it started just below the tracks a few meters into the sunny side.

I sent the group straight back but kept the two with me as spotters as I did a fracture line profile to see what happened in the layers to make it fail like that.

Doing the profile work. You are only seeing the top of the slide. Where I am it is 45cm thick but goes to 110cm´s to the sides. The ski ski line it self goes a bit behind me in the thicker snowpack.

As soon as I stepped into the bed surface I got a migraine. I popped two ibuprofen right away but it took ca. two hrs to get rid of the migraine totally. After the run I ate almost all my food in one go and drank all my water as I was mentally drained from this event. This took a lot out of me, way more that anyone could see on my appearances.

Man, what if everyone got to the top before the slide? Or more likely, what if I was doing the first ski turn on the way down...I would very likely not survive that thing! How about loosing people? There are lots of "what if" and "maybe´s"! Maybe if we all got there to the top and everyone had gone by my instructions then it might not have slid at all??? If it is skied properly then it is a line you can do in a fairly safe maner!

I spoke to Erin that night on the phone and it went down rather well I thought! Erin was probably hiding her feelings so I wouldn't have to worry about her as well? I wasn't sure if she understood the scale of this thing until I spoke with her again the night after, then she told me that Kevin immediately came to her thoughts (Kevin I mentioned in the last post, he died in a slide on DeltaForm) and that she turned on the computer to listen to some music (doesn't do that often) and the first song that came on was "Shut Up" with the BlackEyedPeas. Kevin and I sang that a lot, and laughed a lot at the same time, when we were on the route he died on when we attempted it 2 months before he passed away! Strange!!! Well, if anyone was watching over me then I say thanx... A LOT!

I guess I am writing lots on this to get this thing out of my system, so I can start to move on and use rational thinking more than just emotional. If I let the emotions rule then I will maybe never ski that run again. I have skied it before and I think I will again...just not this season as we are having a strange year!

I just don't want to disappoint the people that I love with going out like that. There is no doubt in my mind that we rated the stability the right way that day. It was just one of those things where you really had to push the right button to get things moving and we definitely found the needle in the hey stack that day!

So I say again (like in the last post) stay safe and remember that the Dragon is out there...hard to wake him up but if you do, then it will be big!

To end this long rant about me thinking a lot about his, here is a video on YouTube from work. Even if it hasn't snowed in more than two weeks we are still having loads of fun. Enjoy life

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=yCga23ripdQ&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g239gr21698&h=7d3f2c76996d12c1e490dc3206d6abb2/