find the one safe way and stay alive, just stay alive.

this saturday was different than all the rest from the very beginning.  i had a 9am dental cleaning which resulted in a tardy (in comparison to most) start on the mountain.  the drive alone was a special kind of adventure.  snowbasin road was backed up with traffic all the way to the trapper's loop turnoff.  i spent 50 minutes getting 3.5 miles to the resort.  it was worth it but not ideal.  the sun was shining, the temps were perfect, kenai was riding shotgun, i had clean teeth....it was still an ok 50 minutes.

once parked we played some ball, ate some lunch, had a beer, and then i bid farewell to my adventure dog and headed to the lifts.

same look he always give me when i leave....

in an attempt at getting any untracked lines that may be left i immediately headed to strawberry, the south side of the mountain.  my first ride up the strawberry gondola i noticed the gate above sister's bowl was opened so that was my plan.  once in the gate i traversed high and far to the south, staying just under the cliff line.  

as i neared the end of the cliff line on my traverse i suddenly heard my friend yell my name but before i could even turn to look at her i heard, what sounded like a literal train coming up behind me.  the next thing i knew my feet were very swiftly swept out from under me, i was buried within the slide, and it was carrying me down the mountain.  i tried to take one breath and couldn't.  "don't panic."  i tried to take a second breath and couldn't.  "i'm beginning to panic."  i took a third breath, inhaled snow/water, coughed a bit, and subsequently panicked.  thankfully, as i was struggling to take my third breath i felt the slide beginning to slow and eventually came to a stop.  there were a lot of things in my favor in this situation, one of them being that the slide was only about 18 inches deep, preventing me from being fully buried and allowing me to pick my head up and breathe as soon as it stopped.

ski patrol responded pretty immediately, closed the gate at sister's, ensured i was ok, and stopped the assassins skiing the chutes above the cliffs who triggered the avalanche as they rode down.  after talking with ski patrol they skied to where i was and apologized.  i chastized them for not riding with avalanche gear.  "if i had been fully buried in the slide, when seconds count, you guys could have doubled the search party when you showed up...if you had gear."

probably goes without saying but i was done on the mountain by the time that whole ordeal came to a close.  i made my way back to the car, hugged my dog for a really long time, and then had a beer in the parking lot with one of the assassins and my good buddy Springer.

as i drove away from the mountain with thurston peak staring me in the face i realized i had a sudden, new respect for nature and its power.

lastly, when your mother gains a new respect for mortality, if you are kenai, you will be rewarded by getting to pick out your very own antler at petsmart.

at the end of the night, kenai and i were both exhausted (physically and emotionally) and very happy to crash hard and fast in bed.

when i woke on sunday, it all felt pretty surreal.  but just in case i had thought it a dream, there was a report of the avalanche on the utah avalanche center's website.  it was real.

to the people i love and ski with, please get avalanche gear and ride with it always.  you NEVER know.