Here is little look at a very close call by a couple guys skiing the Northwest Passage in Granite Canyon and the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort backcountry during last year’s epic snow season. It looks like on this day there was some considerable avalanche danger and one skier came one turn away from getting munched. This serves as a reminder to always be aware of your surroundings, remember to look uphill for potential hazards and to always wait for the skiers below you to get out of the way before dropping in. Live to Ski!!!
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thats crazy! amazing amount of speed and power in what looks like a smaller avalanche/sluff. thanks for sharing.
Steve,
ever play ragdoll blaster on the iphone? same music. funny coincidence.
cool video. gives me goosebumps thinking about the glorious skiing in that canyon.
Its only funny in hindsight, but the lower guy grasping the tree on the uphill side, made me smirk.
Makes you wonder what some people are doing in places like that….skier number one couldn’t ski for shit.
dutchboy…negative, never heard of it. pulled the music from a copyright free website i use.
yeah sbs…i left that part in the clip on purpose. when in doubt…hug the biggest tree around.
stoker…my guess is there was already a big slough pile, or runnel, in the middle of the chute, making skiing a little tricky. i have a feeling they were probably kinda sketched out at the time as well…from cutting slabs and avys the whole way down.
BUT, build a lift…and it will attract all types.
This is a perfect example of the dangers of “the sidecountry”. You can not always see all the way up or down certain terrain. Does anyone know if the sluff was triggerd by another party?
i believe it was triggered by a party above them.
it was probably a pretty small sized slab, but it rocketed down the slope quickly.
been there done that in AAA that actually gave me chills to many ppl above you in granite too many doglegs and much velocity due to chokes.keep moving keep an eye up.
great post steve
Great post Steve! That was a very close call for those skiers in the video. It is crucial that you are always aware of your surroundings when you are skiing in an avalanche prone area. Also don’t forget your beacon, probe, and shovel just in case you aren’t is lucky as these two skiers!
What’s with the Whippet? Picks in powder don’t really work, but he’s got to be a total badass in the tram line. Kind of like Alta skiers with their shovels and probes while riding Sunnyside.
Thanks fer postin, same thing happened to me just last yr…..And he winds up throws aaaaand ball.
Love all the GoPro footage coming out in recent years. Great training tools about what’s above and below, where to pull over, how to work around the windslab bubble from hell, which side of the tree to bear hug, etc. Thanks for posting.
Close call…
Music: Grieg, Dovregubbens hall
Dovre is a mountain (http://www.scandinavianmountains.com/areas/18-dovrefjell/mountains/18.01-sn%C3%B8hetta/index.htm)
Dovregubben is a Troll (a close relative showed in Dovre here: http://g.api.no/obscura/pub/298x1000r/03506/1288445961000_Trolljegeren_nett__3506540298x1000r.jpg)
Last link did not work: http://p3.no/filmpolitiet/2010/10/trolljegeren/
the dutchman:
The music is Edvard Greig, Hall of the Mountain King, a good choice because it is music for a Henrik Ibsen play that takes part in the highest mountains in Scandinavia. If I remember right is Peer Gynt riding a reindeer on the “Besseggen”, popular mountain traverse in Norway, during the music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Hall_of_the_Mountain_King
http://www.hindseter.no/besseggen.html?id=467&L=6
@ omr to be fair I ski Alta backcountry and frequently ski back into Alta from Patsy Marley into Alta and down Sunnyside to the parking lot… I carry a shovel, probe, and becon in the backcountry so yea I might look like a tool on Sunnyside but I don’t care…I agree though a whippet on a powder day dosen’t make any sense it’s probably more dangerous.
Thus the issue with the NW passage, funnels all slough/ slides into the best place to ski. I have a freakishly similar video from pretty close to the exact same spot. Same deal, it was a skier triggered slide from above.