It's That Time Of Year Again...

...on the move again....

So it's that time of year again, which means to anyone unfamiliar with my yearly schedule means that I'm about to migrate for the season- or am I? Will this be my first Montana summer to go along with the epic Montana winter I just experienced? Is this the place to set down and try to make things happen- the age old impossible trick of creating the good ol' "sumthin' outta nuthin". Is this the place? I ponder these kind of questions sporadically on my days off, coincedentally shown above in this photo....



These rocks are on wave wall, and to the unexperienced eye I really dont know how big they look, but from my experience theyre a solid 25 ft, or more, or less- it doesnt matter in the least to this story, but its sets the stage slightly.

So this was the photo from a couple weeks ago on a solid 15 inch pow day, or something along those lines, all i know is that everything was totally socked in visibility wise and Challenger was riding unbelievable. Everything pretty much was actually. Earlier that day there was a chinese-downhill down the normally mogulled out Snake Pit that was a faceshot free-for-all. It took this resort way too long too get upper mountain open, but when things finally started opening it was on. This shot above is from the entrance to Upper Pinnacles. The hike up it was almost complete vertigo, but like most every other run that day it proved more than worth it. Where am I going with this besides just running Big Sky jargon? well lets take a step back to those rocks from 2 pictures ago...heres a shot of those rocks from far away, where people saw us going down. It's called the Wave Wall because its a long cornice that stretches down the ridge, as displayed below...


Take into account also that this above shot was 2 months earlier and who knows how much more snow. It's just to give someone an idea about the run we were on that pow day. Since everything was riding so well we charged off that cornice and down into it. The snow was the deepest there compared to everywhere else we had rode that day and immediately we sunk into it and everything was right in the world. Made about 2 turns down it before that rock patch- thats when I got confused.

Confused? Yeah I guess thats the way to put it. I saw a skinny chute thru the rocks but I wanted more- wanted to jump off something. Thought I had my landing spotted and I definetly didnt, because as I was flying at my destiny I immediately realized these rocks were significantly larger than I had expected. Threw a speed check at those rocks and then everything turned to a chaos of little rocks, powder, and the overlying question of which way was up.

I knew I was gonna take a few impacts, so as I tumbled I just waited for them. The first came directly onto my back and it was the most brutal of all of them. It hit me on my right side under my shoulder blade and next to my spine. I got a large fruit cocktail for that one. Other impacts affected lower muscles in my back, but that was the most noticeable for sure. Two days later I noticed a large mutli colored bruise under my butt, which shouldnt be too big a deal, since swimsuit season is still a few months away.

Friends of mine saw me tumble down those rocks on wave wall and were dialing ski patrol on their phones before I even landed. They said they didnt realize it was me, and thought I was dead for sure. I definetly could have been, that's for sure, but for what happened I don't see it as a lesson in safety equipment because that wouldnt have averted this from happening. Nah, no helmet lessons in this or wristguard/butt-guard/shovelpack for my spine- nah here I think I really learned about appreciating the task at hand- like respecting your goals and how dangerous things can be when done riskily. The bottom line is that I made a rash decision and should have known better.

I'm lucky I learned the lesson without getting too hurt. That's the bottom line- respect the mountain or you'll learn the hard way.