At Biglines, we like to ski big lines, much like the skier in this video. Please make sure to be prepared when heading out into the backcountry. Here are a few avalanche safety links:
"In April of 2008 I drove from Lake Tahoe to Haines, Alaska up the
Al-Can highway through British Columbia and the Yukon with an enclosed
4-snowmobile trailer and a ton of gear. I told myself the year before
after a few years of getting shut out that other than for a surgical
strike, last minute type of spot open for the weekend or
something....that I'd only come up with sleds from now on instead of
sitting around drinking myself into oblivion on a "down day."
Well thank God we did that because we definitely had down days again
right from the get-go. The sledding up at Haines Pass is out of control
good. Even staying closer to town like below Old Faithful is great.
Can't say enough about how much fun it is to ride snowmobiles up there
with no trees.
So the first legit day after that main snow storm cycle, we still went
out snowmobiling one more time wanting to let the snow set up a bit
more....while another part of our group went up in the bird. Actually
two groups went up in the bird, and the first group did all the normal
day-after-storm-cycle snow pit and snow quality tests.
The first group decided that while the dangers remained elevated, that
it was good to go. They all made some of the sickest pow turns in their
lives I was told. The next group then - a couple hundred meters or so
over - set up for their descent.
The guy in the video was the first one to drop from their group and
while not a guide, he had a lot of Utah and AK backcountry experience.
He had a Black Diamond Avalung on, but as you can tell from the video
while he's talking as he's dropping in, it wasn't in his mouth to
start. He tried to shove it in the instant of starting to get sucked
down, but it didn't stay in fully during his ragdoll descent. It was
just off to the corner of his mouth he said, and he definitely got some
snow / ice in his mouth still.
So as he drops in you can also see the sluff to the skier's right
immediately start building....and that's actually the chute that was
the intended route down. For whatever reason - well pure, unadulterated
powder will do it to you - he didn't go make some strong "skier cuts"
into the upper pack to do one final snow check as instructed by the
main guide who was doing the "tail gunner" work.
Instead he just sent it. And it didn't take more than a few turns out
on this big shoulder above this cliff band to break loose.
This was a decent sized avalanche. 1,500 feet the dude fell in a little
over 20 seconds. The crown was about 1 - 1.5m. The chute that he got
sucked through to the skier's right was flanked on either side by cliff
bands that were about 30m tall. He luckily didn't break any bones and
obviously didn't hit anything on the run out.
He was only buried for 4 and a half minutes which is incredibly short.
I cannot stress these next sentences enough; that in and of itself to
be unburied in ONLY 4:28
is miraculous if you have any understanding of being caught in an
avalanche and what it takes to be found. It could literally be some
kind of "world record" just on how good the guide and supporting cast
of other skiers was in getting to him. It also shows why you should
ALWAYS be going with people trained in avalanche rescue / first
aid....as well as why you'd want to be going with a guided heli
operation. Sure this was terrifying for him, but he would've probably
been dead if not for going with a guide.
He also got very lucky to be honest. In the time that he's buried, you
can hear his breathing already accelerate. The ruffling noise back and
forth is his chest rising and falling and the noise that his jacket
makes. The intermittent whimpering noise you hear is him trying to
swallow and get some air since the avalung wasn't fully in his mouth
and instead just to the corner of his mouth. Still sends chills up the
back of my neck. Oh...the luck? They located him so fast because his
right glove came off just before he came completley to rest and there
was an excellent visual of course.
And then the digging out is utterly amazing. I don't think that you
could've paid a Hollywood crew to stage something better. The fact that
he could've been facing any 360 direction and yet he's looking right up
into the sun-filled blue sky with that first full scoop away of the
shovel is borderline spiritual.
This is simply a very sobering and unbelievable video. However, you
should take away from this video all the positive things that you can
learn from it. Yes there are risks to the backcountry - but with proper
gear, training, and guide(s) with avalanche and EMT training - you can
greatly lower your chances of getting caught in an avalanche in the
first place.....and coming back alive if you ever were to get caught in
a slide.
Respect Mother Nature for sure. Learn from this. But just like a Craig
Kelly in the snowboard world or a Shane McConkey in the ski world who
died out in the backcountry (Craig via avalanche and Shane via ski
B.A.S.E. jumping), they left this earth while doing the things that
they were truly passionate about. And while they would stress the need
for the proper gear and training....neither one would want backcountry
enthusiasts to curtail their adventures because of their
accidents....or this video.
Please check with your local resort for classes on backcountry
training, or try starting with a place like AIARE - the American
Institute for Avalanche Research and Training. Their website is avtraining.org."
