Report from January 18, 2021

We started the day zipping around at Revelstoke Mountain Resort, BC before cruising out into the nearby backcountry.

The snow was great.

The sun was out – which is always a gift in BC.

We were pumped after our first run.

Powder, little spines, sunshine, good friends.

We hiked back up for another.

By then the fog had rolled back in and socked us in.

We dropped in a fog, skied a killer little gully/chute and started hiking up for more.

Our 3rd run was epic.

A solid air into a gorgeous bowl with sun on the face up top before barreling down into cloud induced shade.

We were elated.

We zipped back up and skied the same exact zone.

There were a lot of tracks at this point.

I skied only 10′ left of my previous track and whack!

Avalanche…

Honestly, I didn’t even think about avalanches before dropping into this line.

I felt like we’d already made our assessment and the snow was stable enough to ski this zone.

There were also tracks everywhere luring me into a false sense of security.

I was wrong.

I ripped out a 10″ deep, 50′ wide class 1 avalanche that took me for a 200′ ride.

I was able to stay over my skis and ski out of the avalanche.

I was able to pull my avalanche airbag backpack while in the slide.

The experience was harrowing. I got going damn fast and snow was starting to come up over my body and splash my face. I was able to stay calm and focused on escaping the avalanche.

To me, it felt huge and scary and like I was going to be buried if I didn’t release from the avalanche.

Today was a lesson learned.

I’m going to try to always keep my guard up and always reassess every slope before I drop in.

Thanks to my strong partners today for being ready to rock in every situation.

After this avalanche we had a quick debrief and started moving home.

We skied 2 more runs on our way home kept it safe.

What a wild roller-coaster of a day.

Photos in Chronological Order