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We wanted to ski separate lines back down into White
Pine, but on the off-chance that something go amiss, we decided
to watch each other ski. Thinking that there were plenty of lines,
and that the entrance was looking a bit on the steep side, I allowed
my anxious partner to drop in first. From on top of a good sized
cornice, he announce to an invisible audience, "And he softly
approaches the slope" right as he launches off into the air.
He splat lands smack center on a wind loaded pillow, which shifts
immediately and throws him off balance onto his rear.
It's possible that the word "idiot" might
have entered my mind at this moment. But it quickly dissipated
and was replaced with the stunning visuals of fracture lines fiendishly
spreading across the snow pack. The fissures shot out up and
over the cornice onto lower angled snow, not far from where I was
standing. Though he said
no words,
and
I saw
little more than his shoulders and his shiny black helmut, his
body language said, "Oh, shit". From my perspective,
I could see the slope coming alive in the form of an avalanche
behind him. Just in front of him was a small ridge of snow that
was holding steady. To be sure that he saw the same escape as I,
I yelled out, "go forward! Go forward!"
Whether it was my persuasional sense of urgency,
or his sense of self preservation, he quickly scooted forward,
and
was
soon
in
a spot
secure enough to stand and watch the rest of the slide as it poured
down through a stand of pines below, knocking them into a frenzied
dance of flung branches and snow.
I suppose that early morning ski tours are a good way to start
the day, but a full blast of adrenalin is not always welcome over
a cup of coffee...
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