Playing it Safe

Conditions are starting to get a bit spicy out in the backcountry, with a lot of surprising natural and skier triggered avalanches occurring in the area. My friend John, out visiting from Banff, went for a tour with me yesterday. We thought we'd check out one of my favorite lines - a broad, lovely pillow field off the backside of White Queen. Concerned with what we'd been reading we opted to dig a pit and see what was going on before jumping on the slope. We found the two nasty surface hoar layers down 50cm and 80 cms respectively. Moderate compression test tapping popped both of those suckers out easily and we decided to retreat to more anchored terrain. We had fun running laps in the trees and skied some great powder.

Fun in the trees.



John layin' it down Alberta style.