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Avi Gear in summer?
- Koda
- [WayneH]
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Who carries their beacon/shovel/probe etc. in summer ski-mountaineering routes? Who does not? Why/why not? Just curious what the community has to say. I've always though it less common but possible a slide could happen.
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- -Josh-
- [bakerguy87]
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- Pete_H
- [Pete_H]
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- Scotsman
- [Scotsman]
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Mt Baker-Coleman Deming... probably yes although I didn't on my recent trip to the Interglacier .
Sunrise Chuting - nope.
Why? personal assessment of probability and older I get the lighter I need my pack to be.
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- Jonathan_S.
- [Jonathan_S.]
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He- "Do you think we should bring avy rescue gear?"
Me- "Yes."
He- "So . . . you think our route might have avy danger?"
Me- "No."
He- "Then why should we bring avy rescue gear?!?"
Me- "In case I'm wrong."
That said, there are some tours and some combinations under which avalanches are just absolutely impossible, and bringing avy gear is totally pointless (except for the possibly non-avy uses of a shovel).
However, where to draw the line between "I might be wrong" vs "this is totally pointless" can be a hard call...
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- andyski
- [andyski]
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ThisTypically no, unless there is unseasonble fresh snow. Slides in summer-like conditions indeed occur but are typically of the wet/slush slide variety which are more likely to inflict other damage than burial.
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- Koda
- [WayneH]
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Like I mentioned, I always bring mine.... in case I'm wrong. One concern I've had is larger natural slides with a longer run-out, perhaps started from icefall. So in this event, beacons would be essential....
Speaking of the Coleman/Demming route on Baker and summer avalanches.... I had my first trip to the N Cascades last weekend (7/8/12) skiing the summit of Baker on this route (you N Cascadians are spoiled). Sometime Sunday morning when we were approaching the Roman Wall I looked back and a large avalanche released off Colfax Peak and covered quite a bit of ground stopping short of the bootpack highway. I can't help but ask myself could it had been bigger. We stopped for a photo on the ski out....
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- Lowell_Skoog
- [Lowell_Skoog]
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Speaking of the Coleman/Demming route on Baker and summer avalanches.... I had my first trip to the N Cascades last weekend (7/8/12) skiing the summit of Baker on this route (you N Cascadians are spoiled). Sometime Sunday morning when we were approaching the Roman Wall I looked back and a large avalanche released off Colfax Peak and covered quite a bit of ground stopping short of the bootpack highway. I can't help but ask myself could it had been bigger. We stopped for a photo on the ski out....
That slide path looked clean when we arrived at Heliotrope Ridge on Friday afternoon. A big slide came down shortly before sunset. I remember noticing it and saying, "I don't remember that before." I looked at pictures taken earlier in the day and it wasn't there.
I think those slides are mostly icefalls. To my eye, those ice cliffs below Colfax Peak are looking very spooky--especially the cliffs at looker's left, which were relatively quiet over the weekend. I recommend not pausing anywhere in that area. I'm pretty sure people have been caught there before when icefalls crossed the climbing route--much further than you'd expect. Generally you don't survive that sort of avalanche.
On the subject of this thread, I generally don't bring a beacon in late spring and summer. What Pete_H said....
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