In bounds slide at Vail- I'm ok!

[montanaskier]

So our day started like any other powder day. Saw a few mags in line...sorry Max I just got your PM this afternoon. Anyway, the snow was deep and we were well ahead of the crowds. After a lap in Game Creek, Sun Down, Sun Up, and TeaCup we headed to Blue Sky. Our first lap was stupid good in one of our favorite spots. The second lap we decided to hit Iron Mask and the cornice, it looked good and we knew the trees down below would be sweet. As we cruised up to the edge to take a look, I saw Adimmen standing looking for a place to launch. A yelled, a quick hello and got ready. Two guys launched in front of me then skied out the bottom. I got a bit of a go and launched in, good landing and made one big turn to the left. Then all of a sudden I felt the slope move. HOLY SHIT, this thing had broken and was sliding. I at first tried to ski out of it, but it grabbed me and didn't allow that. I screamed and started trying to swim to stay on top. Holy I was scared....I was not wearing any gear. We normally ski even inbounds with gear but hadn't on this day. I was trying to stay on top the best i could, I just couldn't believe this was happening.

The slide finally came to rest once the slope eased and I was ok. Not buried, except for my lower body and I was able to get one leg free, the other was locked up pretty good. Mrs. MTS was still above me. No hangfire to speak of, she traversed away from me, down the slope then to where I was. Adimmen skied down to my location as well. I was crazy shaken up. Looking back up the slope it appeared the crown was about 3 feet and it broke clean to the ground. Guessing about 30-50 feet across. Adimmen took some pics and I'll post those up when I get em from him. He then dug my left leg out. A big thank you to Andy for the help. Sorry I ruined your ski day. Blue Sky closed and they ran a probe line just to be safe.

Unreal the way that went down, still can't believe it. I can officially say that a slide is crazy scary. I don't want to ever go thru that again.....ever. I am also ALWAYS going to wear my gear now....no matter the boundary. I've got it, might as well wear it.

Again thanks to Andy for the help and sorry I messed up a couple of hours of your day. The snow was silly good. Sorry to everyone else for closing BSB. Be careful no matter the ropes is my lesson learned.

[bklyn]

Glad you're ok. We were turned away from BSB because of the avy and they said skiers were possibly trapped. Worried about the mags and glad to see the story wasn't worse.

[AKPogue]

You don't have anything to be sorry about. Good thing you are okay but don't be apologizing for something like this. I doubt you wanted that slope to slide!!

[spindrift]

Glad you are OK (you may not remember, but you showed a few of us a couple nice lines last year after we ran into you on the cat track... thanks for that BTW).

By the reports, today is a crazy day for serious slides... Definitely hoping everyone is coming out OK.

[BigDaddy]

WOW! Glad you're okay. Thanks for the warning about using gear inbounds, too.

[montanaskier]

scariest thing I've even been involved in.

[Fuzz]

Glad to hear you're okay. When we were turned away and told there was an avy, bklyn and I were saying that hopefully it wasn't a maggot.

[beefcake]

well there's snow and a lot of it....

glad you are ok!

i was there...not in blue sky but at vail.

fucking a, great day.

[Tippster]

Holy hell - glad you're OK!

Did you lose any gear?

[ex-powderbroker]

Seriously glad to hear that no one got hurt...thanks for sharing, can't wait to send this to my brother who refuses to buy bc gear.

p.s.

but i heard vail is flat!

[fortysix&2]

Crazy shit man. We took 2 laps off the cornice. Good to hear you're ok.

[TeleHoar]

So I guess it was good I missed you all at the gondola. I was there at 8:30 and didn't see any Maggots i knew so I went on up.

When I finally made it to the BSB lift it was closed already. Thats when I saw you all with the patrol, cutting through the now enormous line. I had no idea till I met you up top, you guys seemed pretty shaken up. Glad I got to see ya for at least a moment, and glad you are all OK.

I just lapped Orient and Siberia for while and came back a little early. I had thought of hitting Prima Cornice but after your ordeal I decided against going in there alone.

Inbounds...crazy.

I had all my stuff on...a chair partner was giving me a little shit for my ava-lung pack. I told him "hey...you never know" That was probably at the exact moment when you being carried down the slide.

Glad you got some fun in! It was pretty good there, sorry I missed out on Blue Sky Basin...but like I said, it was probably a good thing.

[montanaskier]

oddly enough I managed to hold on to everything. One ski rode the wave with me and was at my side when we stopped as well as poles, buried but I could find em. One ski stayed on that one had to be dug out.

[wrinkledpants]

Lucky lucky. Not only should you have the avy gear, but the people your with should too. Your gear doesn't do you much good when you're the one that's buried.

Man..... aside from a good avy course, an avalung is going to be tops on my list too. I would just hate to be buried, still physically fine, but slowly suffocating. The price of an avalung would probably seem like pennies at that point.

[montanaskier]

all the people we ski with have gear and we all know how to use it. Like I said we normally wear it inbounds as well, just didn't today.

[Son1cdeth]

Damn MS. Glad you are ok. We were back there when they closed it down. So happy everyone is ok.

[Rippinsick]

We heard about this at the Beav today. Glad to hear you are ok!!!

[Nathan Explosion]

This is not a good day in the west, glad you're okay.

[FiveLarge]

WOW. Glad you're ok - surely a scary experience - for you and your wife and crew. Could you tell if they had done any control work on that face? I'd be very surprised if they hadn't - and I'm sure it had been skied alot already today. Speaks to spatial variability - to me, the scariest thing about trying to stay safe in avy terrain.

[Sirshredalot]

Glad to hear that you're okay. Maybe it's time to do a little beacon practice tonight (for me).

[dvs8448]

WOW. Glad you're ok - surely a scary experience - for you and your wife and crew. Could you tell if they had done any control work on that face? I'd be very surprised if they hadn't - and I'm sure it had been skied alot already today. Speaks to spatial variability - to me, the scariest thing about trying to stay safe in avy terrain.

They had done control work this morning and yesterday morning as well.

[montanaskier]

patrol said it had been bombed....alot. Said they have had some slides but nothing to that scale. Spacial variability indeed.

[Kya]

Whoa, glad your alright.

[jon turner]

Damn Matt. Glad you're OK. That's a scary ride.

[Jumper Bones]

Very glad you're alright. Beacon time!!!