Red Peak Round 2. I don't think there will be a round 3 for awhile. Today was a successful trip in the means that we made it home safely. The plan was to go for the same route that Greg Dumas and I had went for last Friday. Weather was supposed to warm up today to the 20's and the winds forecasted for moderate 15-20mph with 40mph gusts. There has been a huge wind event over the past few days so I knew that wind loading and wind slabs were going to be a concern to keep an eye out for. I also figured that this tour would go much quicker due to the fact that I had already broken trail a few days prior and A.) having to only break on a few inches is much quicker/easier, and B.) its much easier to have a trail to follow. This proved to be true as the point that we got to the other day took 6hours and we were to that point today in half that..
Another graveyard shift. Off at 7AM, Greg Hansen is at my house by 730 and we were on the trail by 8. We very quickly made it to the base of the ascent gully by 1030 as we started our way towards the summit.
Another graveyard shift. Off at 7AM, Greg Hansen is at my house by 730 and we were on the trail by 8. We very quickly made it to the base of the ascent gully by 1030 as we started our way towards the summit.
Shortly after this picture we got to a fairly low angle slope (guessing mid to low 30's) just beyond the scree and so switched back to skinning. While on the ascent we had discussed our plan for the ride down once we reached the summit and both agreed to stay away from the southeastern aspects as much as possible with all of the crazy windloading. Our plan was to follow the path of least resistance with lowest slope angle our main objective and to also stay on the more South facing aspects. While on the ascent we never dug a pit (which I will discuss later) but we didn't find any real signs of instability throughout the tour. I did have a few collapses on the valley floor in the shrubs but I did expect some of that. Anyways, we switch back to tour mode and start our way up. I lay a track straight up for a little ways, again looking for lowest slope angle and then I made a cut to my left and got a collapse. It's the most unnerving feeling to have a collapse while you are a sitting duck on an open slope, on the ascent let alone. I look back at Greg and we both discuss how that whompf had solidified how cautious we needed to be from there on out. We decided to again try to stay as low angle as we could and try to stay away from the SE'erly slope to our left. In the back of my mind I wondered if we should bail right there. I make a cut back up to the right for about 20 steps and again looking for lowest slope angle I make a cut back to my left for about 5-10 steps and WHOMPF, another collapse. I was shell shocked. After a few seconds I yell "AVALANCHE" and look back at Greg. It remotely triggered about 15-20 yards away to my left, sure as shit on the SE aspect. This was the closest to being caught in and closest first encounter I have had. I know that this sort of thing is bound to happen in some sort of way doing what we do, but Fuck. What a scary ass feeling! Greg and I both have our stomachs in our mouths. Luckily, I think that both the aspect that we were on and the angle of the slope that we were on saved us. ROUTE SELECTION. ROUTE SELECTION. ROUTE SELECTION. More on that later. Even though it didn't break on us the slide did span the width of the gully a little bit down further and it ran about 1000ft or more. We would have gone for a bad ride over a lot of exposed rocks and small cliffs and even though the snowpack was luckily fairly shallow, we could have easily gotten buried. If we had got any closer to that aspect we could have triggered it on top of us and been screwed. You have alot of scenarios play through your head after the fact. And so even though we were probably only 500ft or so shy of the summit, it was time to get the hell out of there. From there we took a few minutes to regain composure and discuss our best plan of attack to get out of there. There was still a huge flank of hangfire that didn't go and we were a little shook up about being on the slope any longer so we ended up hiking down the scree and rock on the climbers right side (SOUTH aspect) of the gully down a ways and then rode the debris out.
After an event like this you have to sit back and contemplate what went wrong, what went right, and what you learned. First of all, what I feel we did right was to communicate. Although we could have always done this more and done it better which is always something to improve upon. Communication is very important whether its before the tour discussing plans, on the ascent discussing the intended route, or on the descent. One thing that I think we did wrong was to not dig a pit. Although we didn't see any signs of activity for the majority of the tour, we still should have dug a pit or two on the ascent just to see what we were looking at. The biggest thing I learned from this was how truly important route finding is. In most cases I feel that this can be one of the upmost important things in winter backcountry travel. You always need to be cautious and aware of your surroundings and to never let your guard down. I am truly glad that the day didn't turn out worse and that we both made it back home safely. Be cautious. Be aware. Be on your toes at all times. Live to ski another day. Stay safe out there!!