non-avalanche burial incident

Scary story, with the best of possible endings. I heard a similar story from someone who described seeing a glove on the surface at the bottom of one of the small inbounds cliffs at the Mt. Baker Ski area. Went down to see if it was worth bootying and found a snowboarder's hand in it, completely buried otherwise. I've always wondered about the truth of the story, but it's clear that this does happen.<br><br>Congratulations on extracting the maximum learning opportunity with the minimum permanent damage...on behalf of the rest of us.<br><br>Mark

My brother jumped a cliff in the baker area and went so deep that only the very tip of his ski pole stuck out. That was during the winter of '99. I remember it well, because I took his test while he went skiing . Fortunately Benman was their to rescue him. <br><br>Glad you're okay Corey.

That incident actually did occur. It was during banked slalom weekend and it was Matt Cummins who came across the glove and ended up pulling someone out. He was in a pillow area getting ready to do this drop and saw a glove sticking out of the snow below him. Turned out it was someone who had just dropped minutes before and submarined. They wouldn't have made it if he hadn't seen them as it's a seldom visited area. It was during the record snow year up there. Pretty scary.

Thanks for sharing, Corey. <br>A real eye opener, to be sure.<br>And too bad about those white padagucci's... they'll probably never be the same

Glad you're safe!<br>I put my whistle on my compass lanyard so I won't forget it, and keep them around my neck so I'll still have them even if I lose everything else. Obviousy, if you can't move your hands it won't help. I've thought about putting it on a wrist for easier access, but it would be in the way. I also think a little serrated knife on a lanyard at the waist is good for cutting gear off if you get hung up.

Glad you're OK, and thanks for the Cautionary Tale. I've recently moved from the North East, and I'm begining to venture into the north and southback at Crystal. I'm learning a lot from the wisdom at TAY and your account contains lots of things to keep in mind when OB. I'm off to West's Marine tomorrow to buy a whistle, and all my longjohns are thankfully black.<br><br>