March 20, 2005, Alta Vista

Do NOT Try This at Home!!

I've been thinking for quite some time about how I could test the rescue skills of my skiing partners.  I want to know if they could actually rescue me.

Ron, Jeanette, Jerry, Maureen and I met at the Tall Timbers in Eatonville, and then drove to the Paradise parking lot.  It was nearly empty when we arrived after a 9:00 am gate opening at Longmire.  We skinned up through about 10 inches of heavy snow to the ridge that forms Alta Vista.  Jerry completed the first run towards Edith Creek with no problems.  I was next.  My first turn was an unnoticed omen.  After starting my run, I buried my inside ski and pirouetted around it.  After I extracted it, I resumed my descent.  I skied over a small snow-hidden rock ledge and fell.  When I landed my left knee was pointed north and my right knee was pointed south.  I could not move either ski, and I was out of sight of my ski partners above me.  Jerry was filming me from below.  Ha!  This was the opportunity to see if my ski partners could rescue me and I decided to use it.  Wait!  This was too realistic.  The pain in my right knee was very sharp!  I cried out for help, over and over again.  My ski partners raced down to me.  Ron attempted to dig out my right ski and get my boot out of the binding.  Maureen and Jeanette got my pack and left ski off and provided excellent comfort.  My three ski partners were able to get me to stand up and face the same direction as my right knee (north) which removed the torque on it.  What a relief!!  They rescued me!!!  Jerry has it all on film (thanks, Jerry).  However, the exercise caused me to have a sore right knee and some shooting pains into my right foot.  Oh well, I felt good (except for the knee pain) knowing that they were up to the task.  I reattached my skis, traversed the slope at little, and pushed my skis around into several turns until I reached Jerry.  Ron, Jeanette and Maureen completed their descents without any problems.

We watched a couple of telemark skiers dive into the snow several times as they descended the slope north of Alta Vista.  They commented on how AT skiers don't know what work is.  Ron responded by stating that AT skiers chose the right equipment for the conditions.  To prove it, we skinned to the location where they started their descent.  The ATers (Ron, Jeanette and Jerry) ripped down the fall line.  The telle-ers (Maureen and I) forced our skis into turns that did NOT follow the more direct line down the fall line as the ATers.  Not wanting to leave good snow to look for good snow, we skinned back to our previous location.  

After arriving, we dug a rutchblock to assess the effects of the warming temperature on the snow pack.  Maureen pummeled the block into compression on the ice layer about 10 inches below the surface.  Ron was able to get the loose snow layer to slide after 20 whacks of a compression test.  We skied down the slope again, crossed Edith Creek and skinned up to ridge above the west fork of the Paradise River.  Since there was ski-able terrain below, we decided to ski down towards the river.  Why not?  After a short descend through some trees, we traversed south toward the Stevens Canyon road.  I was feeling a little tired when we started the traverse and was looking forward to some pillow talk.  The sound of skis racing over partially covered rocks followed us as we descended to the road.

We skinned up the road and to the cars.

Thanks to Ron, Jeanette and my lovely Rose, Maureen, for rescuing me, and especially to Jerry for getting it all on film.