Three days! Kept getting better and better as the temps got colder and sucked the moisture out of the snow, as the initial snowfall was a bit on the heavy side. It wasn't hero, tits deep powder or anything but it was enough to bury pretty much every track in their tenure, so we were riding untouched snow the entire time. Stability was the shits, though, so it somewhat limited what terrain the guide was able to let us loose on. I prefer tree skiing to alpine anyways, after the first run or two in the alpine when heli/cat skiing it just gets boring. In any case, after all 3 of my trips got rained out last year, it was a very pleasant change. Hopefully my two remaining trips this year are in the same ballpark.
Just above the Headwalls in Sun Peaks. One of those really dumb things where I was just cruising and looking ahead to find a little kicker or drop to entertain myself rather than focusing on what I was skiing. Snow was grabby which caused me to catch an edge and lose a ski. I was moving at a pretty good clip so I estimate I flew about 20 feet down the hill in the air head/shoulder first. Even in midair I was thinking "that was dumb, oh well guess I have to climb up and get a ski" like it was no big deal before I impacted. My left shoulder took the entire force of the impact and there was no give to the snow whatsoever. I heard the crack on impact and not a sound I'll soon get out of my head even though at the time I wasn't sure if it was bone breaking or a joint dislocation.
That really, really sucks man. If there's one thing I'm good at when skiing, it's falling without hurting myself. If I start to feel myself going down, I'll often pretty much try to jump out of my bindings to avoid destroying a knee (my DINs are generally set up around 11, and I'm not a very big guy at all).
That tactic nearly got me in to a lot of trouble last weekend though. I was riding down some pretty steep tree lines, and crossed my tips up in a turn. I more or less did a somersault over my skis intentionally instead of going over head first and struggling in the deep snow to get my feet/skis back below me for five minutes, cause that shit is exhausting. When I completed the roll and stood up again, I was standing on top of a near vertical 10-15' drop, and down below were two giant fucking tree wells. My skis were literally sticking out in to the thin air as I stood there. Thankfully I was able to shimmy to the side and find a route out. Had I gone in headfirst to those tree wells there's a good chance I'd be dead before my ski buddy or the rest of the group could find me.
Invincibility streak continues!
