Am I completely not ready for backcountry skiing?
This is a long story, bear with me.
I recently took my AIARE 1 course at Snoqualmie/Alpental (near Seattle, WA). The 1st day (tour day) was a considerable avy risk day with lots of wet, heavy snow after a significant storm the night before and warming the day we were out there. I was very familiar with my gear, and had done uphill inbounds several times to get used to technique/skins/etc. I watched a ton of videos and completely over-prepared because I didn’t want to be the person slowing everyone down (especially as the only woman in an avy class of 13 men..). I had absolutely no issues with endurance or skinning or gear. I was actually one of the stronger skinners in the class and did the fastest transitions except the two 60 year old advanced telemark skiers in my class. A few folks in my class said this was their first year skiing, though most seemed really confident (talked about skiing double blacks and cliffs in resort). We skinned up to Source Lake and then our guide suggested Big Trees as our run, which he described as a double black run in trees. I said I could probably get down it but I would likely fall a decent amount. Two others said the same. Given that, he switched to what he called a “mellow gully” just to the west of Big Trees. I think it’s the lower part of Lower Great Scott. Slope shading on Gaia looked like less than 30 degrees, even down to less than 26. I thought no problem, though it was narrow so not much room to turn.
It was awful.. we had a sketchy drop in that was pretty steep for me - and prior to that had to transition on about a 3ft platform that was sheer on all sides and I sunk to my waist in snow. So I fell pretty quickly after the drop in just from lack of confidence. It wasn’t a hard fall but my ski came off immediately. I got up, got the ski back on (not easy in wet heavy snow), and started down again. And ski came off again, this time just when I hit a deeper section of snow (albeit a little off balance and slightly in the backseat). So of course, fell after the ski came off. After that I’m totally freaked out and in my own head. Everyone is watching me and waiting at the bottom (13 people in my class). So I basically just fall the rest of the way down this entire slope with my skis coming off because I’m completely riding in the backseat at this point. And I’m exhausted from hauling myself out of the snow and getting the ski back on. And I’m mortified. The people who just started skiing this year made it down better than me…
The guide helped tighten my bindings after this fiasco and I was able to ski out no problem and not fall. But the ski out is a relatively easy track.
I am 30 and have been skiing since I was a kid but it was in the Midwest. I just moved to Seattle are and have been skiing at White Pass, Whistler, and Stevens a handful of times. I can confidently ski all blue runs in bounds (and tend to ski pretty aggressively) and blue tree runs (though maybe a little slower). I can get down blacks, but I don’t have as much fun. I’ve never tried double blacks, I have a major mental block over them. I know everyone says you have to be an expert skier in all conditions to try backcountry. But I also have a ton of friends here who learned to ski in the backcountry and said the avy 1 course tour is not hard, it’s more about avalanche training and awareness than ski ability. My avy 1 tour day felt much more like a “real” tour.
So, am I just totally not ready for backcountry (skill-wise)? For people who ski here, is Big Trees/Great Scott a beginner run that I should be able to do no problem? I’m just trying to get a sense of whether I need to completely go back to resort, or if there are maybe easier runs I could do that would help me start to gain confidence and backcountry skills for PNW (since wet heavy powder is hard to find/practice in resort)? Either way, I think a lesson would be a good idea..
The gear issue didn’t help, so maybe I’ll feel more confident next time if I know my skis are going to stay on. But falling every turn on my very first “real” tour made me question if I can do this, regardless of gear - I VERY rarely fall inbounds and only in extreme conditions.
I will also say, my ski popped off once on the steep uptrack. It was a bad sign obviously, but I couldn’t do anything about it since I didn’t have a screw driver. I just hoped it was a fluke. I had my bindings mounted at a professional shop that specializes in BC setups, but I was skeptical they set things properly because when I brought the skis home they hadn’t set the rear DIN at all. I set it at home, and skied inbounds several times with no issues at all. But my guide said the pin portion wasn’t set. Backcountry bindings are totally new to me so honestly I didn’t know about setting the pin portion, and that’s on me.
This is a long story, bear with me.
I recently took my AIARE 1 course at Snoqualmie/Alpental (near Seattle, WA). The 1st day (tour day) was a considerable avy risk day with lots of wet, heavy snow after a significant storm the night before and warming the day we were out there. I was very familiar with my gear, and had done uphill inbounds several times to get used to technique/skins/etc. I watched a ton of videos and completely over-prepared because I didn’t want to be the person slowing everyone down (especially as the only woman in an avy class of 13 men..). I had absolutely no issues with endurance or skinning or gear. I was actually one of the stronger skinners in the class and did the fastest transitions except the two 60 year old advanced telemark skiers in my class. A few folks in my class said this was their first year skiing, though most seemed really confident (talked about skiing double blacks and cliffs in resort). We skinned up to Source Lake and then our guide suggested Big Trees as our run, which he described as a double black run in trees. I said I could probably get down it but I would likely fall a decent amount. Two others said the same. Given that, he switched to what he called a “mellow gully” just to the west of Big Trees. I think it’s the lower part of Lower Great Scott. Slope shading on Gaia looked like less than 30 degrees, even down to less than 26. I thought no problem, though it was narrow so not much room to turn.
It was awful.. we had a sketchy drop in that was pretty steep for me - and prior to that had to transition on about a 3ft platform that was sheer on all sides and I sunk to my waist in snow. So I fell pretty quickly after the drop in just from lack of confidence. It wasn’t a hard fall but my ski came off immediately. I got up, got the ski back on (not easy in wet heavy snow), and started down again. And ski came off again, this time just when I hit a deeper section of snow (albeit a little off balance and slightly in the backseat). So of course, fell after the ski came off. After that I’m totally freaked out and in my own head. Everyone is watching me and waiting at the bottom (13 people in my class). So I basically just fall the rest of the way down this entire slope with my skis coming off because I’m completely riding in the backseat at this point. And I’m exhausted from hauling myself out of the snow and getting the ski back on. And I’m mortified. The people who just started skiing this year made it down better than me…
The guide helped tighten my bindings after this fiasco and I was able to ski out no problem and not fall. But the ski out is a relatively easy track.
I am 30 and have been skiing since I was a kid but it was in the Midwest. I just moved to Seattle are and have been skiing at White Pass, Whistler, and Stevens a handful of times. I can confidently ski all blue runs in bounds (and tend to ski pretty aggressively) and blue tree runs (though maybe a little slower). I can get down blacks, but I don’t have as much fun. I’ve never tried double blacks, I have a major mental block over them. I know everyone says you have to be an expert skier in all conditions to try backcountry. But I also have a ton of friends here who learned to ski in the backcountry and said the avy 1 course tour is not hard, it’s more about avalanche training and awareness than ski ability. My avy 1 tour day felt much more like a “real” tour.
So, am I just totally not ready for backcountry (skill-wise)? For people who ski here, is Big Trees/Great Scott a beginner run that I should be able to do no problem? I’m just trying to get a sense of whether I need to completely go back to resort, or if there are maybe easier runs I could do that would help me start to gain confidence and backcountry skills for PNW (since wet heavy powder is hard to find/practice in resort)? Either way, I think a lesson would be a good idea..
The gear issue didn’t help, so maybe I’ll feel more confident next time if I know my skis are going to stay on. But falling every turn on my very first “real” tour made me question if I can do this, regardless of gear - I VERY rarely fall inbounds and only in extreme conditions.
I will also say, my ski popped off once on the steep uptrack. It was a bad sign obviously, but I couldn’t do anything about it since I didn’t have a screw driver. I just hoped it was a fluke. I had my bindings mounted at a professional shop that specializes in BC setups, but I was skeptical they set things properly because when I brought the skis home they hadn’t set the rear DIN at all. I set it at home, and skied inbounds several times with no issues at all. But my guide said the pin portion wasn’t set. Backcountry bindings are totally new to me so honestly I didn’t know about setting the pin portion, and that’s on me.