just another day at our nonprofit community ski area

I took this photo from the top of 3/4 rock. 2 inch day.

Zach, star of all these photos, skis really fast over steam roller

This is the pinch were I was sluffed over the rocks to the skier's right about a month ago in much lower snow.

Pow skiin'

Windless, cloudless, deep snow and -10 degrees Farenheit!

Good Runs Gone Bad

A GoPro has a much wider field of view than a skier wearing goggles and, I think it picks up contrast better also. I never saw this sluff coming; I just felt it and cut out right. Nothing eventfull happens after that, I'm just a lazy editor.                          

New vantage

This run is surprisingly accessible for the right price

smoggy day in the valley

good runs gone bad

I pulled over beneath a cliff to let my sluff go by and breath a little. Then, committed to straight lining the crux, I found myself becoming engulfed in a much larger sluff. With just enough momentum to cut out I was forced onto steep rocks. The slide grabbed my tails and torqued me face first down the cliff band. In less than three seconds (I got it on film) about five train cars worth of loose snow passed behind me and settled on the lower angle slope below. This is what went through my head:

"If you spend enough time in the mountains you're going to get slid out" Chuinard
"This is going to be the best run of your life or you are going to die" Coombs
"My pelvis is broke, my femur is broke, I can't breath, my abdomen is crushed, I'm wearing a helmet, I have a PLB" me

In the next two seconds I realized that I was not broken and only had the wind knocked out of me. A quick exit through hole-in-wall sans poles,  a miss of last chair, a gimp back to the groomer and Holiday Inn taco nite.

Lost both poles, ripped my coat, bruised hip, ribs, quad, hand. On a crowded day like that one the sluff that took me out could certainly have been from another skier. further video analysis may shed light on this.