Butler Bailout

Reed and I went skiing this morning. The avy report yesterday sounded pessimistic, so we chose Butler Fork, knowing that it is generally pretty safe.

The first trip of the season always involves a little extra fussing around with gear, etc. and this was no exception.

The parking area had not been plowed, and the snow was deep enough that we had to shovel out a spot to park with our avy shovels. It did not take too long, and we finally started hiking about 6:20, but then had to return to the car a few minutes later when Reed realized he had forgotten his shovel handle after the dig.

From there things went smoothly for about 45 minutes of climbing through 3 foot deep unconsolidated snow, but then the snow pack started getting sketchy. Step, step, whoomph. Step, step, whoomph. I ignored it for a couple minutes because it was pretty low angle, but the whoomphs got bigger and I started hearing echos propagating through the snow.

Finally a big one, and I said, "Reed, I hate to say this, but I think we should turn around."

"You think it is that bad?" he asked.

"Yes."

Then he says, "After that last step I saw the whole slope below us move."

So we de-skinned and skied back to the car.

Ah well. A nice hike and finally a start to the ski season.