Hairy Christmas!

Headed to PC Ridge for some turns in South Monitor. After skiing a laps in the skier's left part of the bowl without incident (an area without October snow) I decided to push a little farther skier's right where I knew a slide had occurred on 12/15. Winds this past week had refilled this area forming a cohesive hard slab under about 6" of fluff. Stomped it quite a bit and even dropped a fair size cornice chunk on it before dropping in. Hit the "sweet spot" as the slope window paned two turns into my run. It broke out approximately 30' wide at the crown, fanned out to about 70' and ran 2/3rds of the slope. A repeater, it failed on rotten October snow on the ground. Manageable skiing off of the slab but it could have gone much differently.

So far this season, I’ve been safely skiing areas without October snow or by paying attention to slope angles. Broke both those personal rules and added skiing a slope that is a known repeater. Discussed the line with my partner and called it a “well calculated risk”. Knowing if it went, there was an escape skiers left to an area with no October snow provided enough confidence to take the risk. Rewinding thought process in my head later, the decision was a poor one. Comparing the area skied to the slide there 12/15, this slide easily could have broken out wider. Although not deep enough to bury, it could have been a rough ride.

Honestly, the lure of a favorite fun line on good snow in a clouded my better judgment. This area hasn't been able to build up a strong snowpack to put that October sugar on the ground to rest. I knew this and yet...