By: randosteve|Posted on: November 21, 2008|Posted in: Gear, Trip Planning | 13 comments

So, you couldn’t find any ski partners, but today is your only day off this week and you are just dieing to ski that couloir you’ve been eying.  The avalanche forecast is for moderate danger, with isolated pockets of instability in wind-loaded areas and the weather forecast is for bluebird skies.  You decide to go for it alone.

Conditions are variable and you find some slabby areas that are a challenge to ski and look like they might rip.  You try to stay to one side of the couloir to avoid the questionable snow, but a choke forces you to the other side.  Just as you think you’re clear, the slope fractures, knocks you down and carries you downward.  You’re not worried about being buried because it’s only a small slide, but you can’t escape it’s grasp and it slams you into the rocks on the side of the couloir. You feel a shooting pain in your leg.

As you come to a halt on a fanning apron below the line, you start to panic.  You’re leg is broken and there is no way you are going to be able to ski out.  Your heart-rate finally slows down a little and you remember the entry on SafeCheckIn.com this morning, where you indicated what time you were leaving, what line you were skiing, how long it would take and emergency contact information.  Soon, a 24 hour service will attempt to notify you and contact emergency rescue personnel.  After a few hours, you’re starting to shiver and your down jacket is soaked from lying in the snow.   But in the distance…you suddenly hear something.  Yes, it’s a helicopter and it’s heading right to your location.  You are saved!!!  And all for only $8.99 a month.  Check it out…SafeCheckIn.com.

SafeCheckIn.com