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  1. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by peds View Post
    You should see the director's cut, the sightseeing helicopter makes multiple appearances.
    ...( toes tapping....)
    Merde De Glace On the Freak When Ski
    >>>200 cm Black Bamboo Sidewalled DPS Lotus 120 : Best Skis Ever <<<

  2. #27
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    Sep 2004
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    Thanks for the write-up. I also don't get the animosity towards peds for the report. I appreciate the honest accounting and descriptions of the situation, your risk assessment, and decisions on how to proceed.
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  3. #28
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    Dec 2016
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    In a van... down by the river
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    Quote Originally Posted by hafjell View Post
    <snip>
    And, 20 year, level term life insurance is cheap in the States.
    They almost always disqualify you if you die mountaineering, though, don't they?

  4. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by skaredshtles View Post
    They almost always disqualify you if you die mountaineering, though, don't they?
    Hmmmm....(checks policy)

  5. #30
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    Dec 2016
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    In a van... down by the river
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    Quote Originally Posted by hafjell View Post
    Hmmmm....(checks policy)
    Insurers almost universally hate fun in this country.

  6. #31
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
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    Park City
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    I’m no mountaineering god but it seems like it was a sound plan and ski....just really terrible luck that the exit chute got blasted.

    Great story, even better outcome.


    Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums
    I rip the groomed on tele gear

  7. #32
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
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    241
    Your writing is super thrilling. Maybe ya should start a short story blog 😉. Glad you're all good! I don't really blame you as some guys might. It's adventure and sometimes the worst can happen.

    Make money. Buy toys.

  8. #33
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    Jan 2008
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    Well written. I felt some sadness while reading this, the system over there seems so civilized compared to the way things are in the states.

    I don't know why anybody here would get angry at the OP if the French aren't.
    that's all i can think of, but i'm sure there's something else...

  9. #34
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    Jan 2009
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    not here, kansas
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    306
    Yes, Why is the alcoholic on the telemark set up so mad?

    Other than being an alcoholic living in Colorado during a drought year.
    Falling feels like flying........for a little while.

  10. #35
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    Oct 2007
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    Chamonix
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    Quote Originally Posted by counterfeitfake View Post
    Well written. I felt some sadness while reading this, the system over there seems so civilized compared to the way things are in the states.
    I don't know why anybody here would get angry at the OP if the French aren't.
    Well, I don't think we can just assume that the French aren't angry at me, just not for this particular episode. I'm sure I've given them tons of reasons.
    You are absolutely right though, the system here is pretty bloody great. The French are responsible for all sorts of incredibly civilised ways of living life... mandatory holidays on some days of the year, except if you work in the bakeries. The people need their bread.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bdog325 View Post
    Maybe ya should start a short story blog ��.
    For about a year I kept meaning to get back onto that, but I've had to come to accept the fact that I just don't have the time or the energy for it anymore. Parenting is such a time suck, I honestly had no idea. Before I was happy to stay up until the small hours seeing how words looked next to each other, but these days I'm grateful for any extra few minutes I get to spend asleep.
    One day I'd really like to try and get into writing properly, but I don't think that day has arrived just yet.
    Short stories about snow and rock, and pictures, too

  11. #36
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    Sep 2010
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    SW CO
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    Quote Originally Posted by abraham View Post
    On the other hand.


    I always enjoy reading your writing, and I'm glad you're ok and get to spend time with the family.
    QFT.
    "Alpine rock and steep, deep powder are what I seek, and I will always find solace there." - Bean Bowers

    photos

  12. #37
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    Oct 2010
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    Quote Originally Posted by detrusor View Post
    I’m no mountaineering god but it seems like it was a sound plan and ski....just really terrible luck that the exit chute got blasted.

    Great story, even better outcome.


    Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums
    Yup exactly. Couldn't have done more to ski the line safely.
    When a user has tele AND a cheap nasty bourbon in his name you can just tell he's a jabroni.

  13. #38
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    Quote Originally Posted by skaredshtles View Post
    Insurers almost universally hate fun in this country.
    Actually, I'm covered. From my agent, "As for your policy, it covers skiing and pretty much anything you’d want to do. They are only contestable for 2 years and you’re past that point.... Only exclusions would be a crime I think."
    Was going to apologize for thread drift, but think insurance is on topic here.
    Peds, good write-up in powderguides. You're huge in Freiburg!

  14. #39
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    Apr 2002
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    Quote Originally Posted by peds View Post

    Benny Hill goes ski mountaineering.

    So did the place in Cham just sell you the gear and you walked out into the mountains? What made you think this would work?

    Showed a friend and his comment was, 'If he pulled this shit in CO it would have been a cold, lonely night for him up there.' I have to wonder if knowing that you could just call in a heli and get pulled out to safety enabled some of this decision making.

    Glad you're OK, but IMO if you don't change things up this will catch up with you pretty quickly.
    [quote][//quote]

  15. #40
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    Oct 2003
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    Not any 4000ft+ techy tubes accessible with a 2000ft skin from a lift in CO... even if it wasn't SW facing, low tide or Jan.
    Quote Originally Posted by blurred
    skiing is hiking all day so that you can ski on shitty gear for 5 minutes.

  16. #41
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    Apr 2002
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    Quote Originally Posted by Summit View Post
    Not any 4000ft+ techy tubes accessible with a 2000ft skin from a lift in CO... even if it wasn't SW facing, low tide or Jan.
    I don't think his point was that accessibility would be the same--obviously he was comparing what the response would be to a guy putting himself somewhere like that. I admit, it's really easy to second guess, but the way I read his report it sounded like he knew at least some of his (many) problems were likely to occur, or at least real possibilities. And maybe if his priority had been a quick, safe descent instead of photos and video things might have been different.
    [quote][//quote]

  17. #42
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    Oct 2007
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    Chamonix
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dexter Rutecki View Post
    I have to wonder if knowing that you could just call in a heli and get pulled out to safety enabled some of this decision making.
    Hi there, sorry for the late reply, my ongoing dad duties keep me off the internet a lot these days. So, briefly:

    No, the option of calling a helicopter has never in my life been a part of my decision making process, and to be completely honest I was 100% ignorant of the potential cost of the rescue until doing some hasty online research after the fact. I asked for a rescue because I thought there was a genuine risk to my own life if I were to try and get myself out under my own steam (a situation, I hasten to add, that I have never been in in my life), and I value my continued existence a little more than living in debt for a few years to pay off whatever the costs might have been.

    I'm not entirely sure what you mean by the "what made you think this would work" question, given that (I assume) you weren't actually in the Chamonix valley around the time, you weren't really familiar with the specific snowpack conditions present, and thus, cannot really say with any certainty what aspects or altitudes were safe to be skiing on on that day. Please understand, I'm not trying to make any claims about my own levels of experience or expertise, but I cannot allow it to be said that every other team - many of whom, I'm happy to admit, are objectively better ski mountaineers than me in every way imaginable - who were skiing similar lines on similar aspects both across the massif and on the same ridgeline as my descent, in the days leading up to, on the same day, and the days following this episode, are all in the wrong, and that their decision making process was all wrong.

    I can do nothing but agree with the fact that because I ended the day dangling from a wire under a helicopter that it was, ultimately, the wrong place to be, but in my defence, after viewing the line from afar for, not just specifically the few weeks leading up to my decision to try and ski it, but also the preceding ten years, the exit couloir was in the best condition that it has been since the winter of 2012/13. As it turns out, 12 hours is a long time in the mountains, and what I thought was a safe-enough "window of ignorance" between the last time I saw the exit and the moment that I came to actually ski it, turned out to be more action-packed than I had banked on.

    For what it's worth, conditions all across my corner of the Alps at the moment (and since the middle of January) are some of the best for the time of year that they've been in a decade, and there have been repeated descents and attempts of some of the biggest and most impressive lines available across all aspects, including a load of esoteric 5.4 and 5.5 on the toponeige scale, which very rarely come into condition.
    Short stories about snow and rock, and pictures, too

  18. #43
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    Dec 2010
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    Vancouver Island
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    That's intense. I also don't understand the initial animosity. Seemed TR worthy to me, even if it wasn't "successful" by mission completion standards.

    Quote Originally Posted by skaredshtles View Post
    They almost always disqualify you if you die mountaineering, though, don't they?
    Mine excludes it. You do fun stuff? No, we don't cover that.
    "...if you're not doing a double flip cork something, skiing spines in Haines, or doing double flip cork somethings off spines in Haines, you're pretty much just gaping."

  19. #44
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    Quote Originally Posted by peds View Post
    As it turns out, 12 hours is a long time in the mountains, and what I thought was a safe-enough "window of ignorance" between the last time I saw the exit and the moment that I came to actually ski it, turned out to be more action-packed than I had banked on.
    This is the great service you’ve given to those of us who use this forum to learn. Yes, easy to say from the keyboard that conditions are constantly changing in the alpine. But harder to admit to the heuristic trap of tracking something for years only to find it has dramatically changed overnight. I wouldn’t spend much time on the Bros who need to sound tough on the Internet. Thanks for your honesty and humility. If I were to quibble, I might remind you that it doesn’t matter what others are doing and getting away with on similar elevations and aspects. But I sense you already know that. Keep going.



    Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

  20. #45
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    Jun 2006
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    Ventura Highway in the Sunshine
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    They almost always disqualify you if you die mountaineering, though, don't they?
    Ah, but that begs the question "is this mountaineering?" (See appropriate TGR thread)


    This seems a well thought out and researched attempt, that didn't end as planned. Unless there was some way to check the exit the morning you skied it, and saw that it slide, I don't see any fault in your plan. It appears that checking it was not an option due to time/logistics, so I don't see even that as a fault. The mountains hold surprises for us, some good some bad. It is not always possible to know exactly what is below us when skiing such a committing line, we can only gather so much beta. While nothing like what you did, we skied a line in the Dolomites that involved a blind rappel. It was skied 48 hours earlier and was in excellent condition, so we went for it...it was fantastic. There was always a possibility that conditions could have changed radically in 48 hours, but no reason to believe so. We just had to go with the best beta at the time. We scored, the OP didn't...thats life in the alpine.

    At the end of the day you made wise choices and all ended well.

    I agree it is a constitutional right for Americans to be assholes...its just too bad that so many take the opportunity...
    iscariot

  21. #46
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    Sep 2009
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    N side, Terrace, BC
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    Just catching up on TR's and caught this one. More good Peds! Thanks, glad it all worked out.

    And, yeah, following tracks can always get you in shite. Skiing Zinal a few weeks ago and with all the parapente folks flying about I certainly gave following someone else's track considerable thought.
    “I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.”
    ― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

    www.mymountaincoop.ca

    This is OUR mountain - come join us!

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