non-avalanche burial incident

Well, I have been following the threads about the poor folks that have been buried in treewells this year, and like most of the posters/members here I think I have become a little more conscious of those kinds of accidents.  Obviously the best prevention a person can take to avoid/mitigate these situations is to ski with a buddy or a group and stay together.  I'm certainly not going to claim that I have never skied alone or gotten too far ahead/behind/right/left from someone I was riding with, but yesterday (Friday) I was skiing with one other person and thankfully we had been staying together and not getting too far ahead of eachother.  It made a difference!<br><br>So, it was another great day at Alpental.  Thursday had been beyond amazing, and Friday was even deeper, although quite a bit more crowded.  On my first run of the day I happened to run into Kevin, a friend of a friend who I had skied with on several occasions in years past.  After a few good runs, we were naturally looking for more fresh powder, and I was leading Kevin to one of my favorite stashes.  Along the way we came across a ridge that we had to get over.  We were at a spot where it was a drop off and one would have to step up a bit or go down the ridge to find a different way, but the snow was deep and it seemed like it wouldn't be too much hassle to just plop it right there.  <br><br>Now I'm not really too big of a cliff-hucker, but I feel I'm pretty comfortable plopping 15 feet or so and probably go 20-25 feet or so a few times a year when the pillows are really soft and deep.  My initial thought was that it was 15 feet or so so I went for it with a touch of speed, which I've found can sometimes make the landings a bit easier.  However, once I was past the point of no return I could see that it was bigger that I thought, and the landing was a little flat for the 25+ feet I had just committed to.  I decided to crater the landing, land with my skis and then ass-check it.  I hardly even felt the landing with the deep untracked snow but I penetrated farther into the snow than I ever have before.  I was completely submerged with only my gloved hands sticking out of the snow!  And I could not free myself!  I tried not to panic and began trying to clear snow away from my face with my hands but I could only move them at the wrist and my attempts were largely futile.  At this point I was trying to stay calm but the feeling of utter helplessness was beginning to set in.  That's when I crapped my pants.  It was kind of a relief actually, at least for a moment.  I could still breathe, but they were feeling less and less like the kind of deep wonderful breaths I have enjoyed ever since.    <br><br>Kevin was looking from above, waiting for me to ski out.  My plan in the beginning was to plop it, and then guide him down an easier way if neccesary.  Because of the angle, he couldn't see me.  I think he may have called out to me, and I did yell out, but I don't think he could hear me.  He said that he saw one of my poles and thought something might be wrong.  I believe he stepped upwards a bit and at that point must have realized what was going on.  He stepped right into action, finding a spot a bit further up the ridge that was smaller, hopped down and came to me.  It was a good feeling when something grabbed my hand, and even better when he dug out my face.  I had been under the snow for about 2 minutes.  I believe I could still breathe some but I was definately feeling a bit hypoxic and certainly claustrophobic.  But now I was pretty darn happy, and thankful that Kevin had responded so quickly and heroically.<br><br>Clearly my decision to launch in that spot was a bit hasty.  I admit that it did not occur to me that it was even possible to go in that deeply.  Certainly I could have avoided the situation, but I do think that something like this such as a treewell or some other wierd burial situation could happen in a lot of different ways to anyone.  I think the most important lesson I have relearned from this is how important it can be to ski with partners and to stay together.<br><br>Also - white longjohns, while a nice color and tres chic, may not be the best choice for certain skiing endeavors.<br><br><br><br>

a cheap life insurance policy when skiing trees is to each carry a straight whistle. when you are out of site of your partner, signal 2 blasts (o kay?). Reply of 3 blasts means "I'm o kay". A long blast or no reply means I need help.<br><br>Straight whistles are available at West Marine for about a buck. The sound carries well & there are no moving parts.<br><br>It's not a substitute for beacons in the back country, but might be helpful when voice and sight don't cut it.

Whoah! Glad you're still with us, Corey. Thanks for sharing the story and your reflections on it.

Wow, Corey, I'm glad you two were taking the precaution of skiing together. A couple of questions came to mind while I was reading your account. One concerns why you went in so far. Do you think it was in only the new snow above the crust (maybe there was not siginficant crust there), or is it possible that you actually went into a tree well of a just-covered small tree?<br><br>The other question is about how you and your friend got you out. Did you have shovels? What about your skis - did they release, did you have to fish them out of the hole after you got out?<br><br>Whistles sound like a good idea. I carry a whistle, but not around my neck where it would be readily available. Maybe I should get a handful of the type Jim_Olson mentions and distribute to partners on each trip. It would be interesting to test them and see how far the sound carries in different conditions.

Kevin the fireman from Hyak? You would have had the right guy to rescusitate you, but good to hear you're OK!

Wow, that makes me think twice about sking by myself (like today). Carrying a whistle is a great idea. One comment though: Don't want to sound like a dweeb, but I'm pretty sure that three blasts on a whistle (or gun etc) is considered a universal distress call. So Jim's "I'm ok" single might get some people worried.