I had gone with my Cross Country metal edged skis or (mountaineering skis) which are better if you hit a patch of ice than ones without metal edges and I had put my skins on for going uphill to Horse Camp Sierra Club Lodge. It was a sunny day and I was skiing alone which I sometimes liked to do. At this point I don't recommend skiing alone (even though I might have been the only one who survived the avalanche this day if someone else was there with me that day).
So, i decided I would traverse on Skis all the way over to the Old Ski Bowl and I got about halfway there and realized the snow conditions were not going to let me do this. So, I started going down fairly quickly off the mountain.
Suddenly, I was center of a city block sized avalanche. But, it wasn't the really impressive ones where almost everyone dies. Instead the whole city block sized avalanche went down the mountain at about 30 miles per hour with me struggling to stay on top of it so I wouldn't die.
To make matters worse it was a very sunny day so I had taken my shirt of because I was too hot with any jacket or shirt on and only wore a baseball cap then and my backpack with my extra clothes in it and likely a protein bar and water there too be able to put out this much energy and stay okay.
So, now I"m desperately struggling to stay up on top of the snow before I died. I was moving my legs and poles faster than I have ever had to before and scared I would die.
Then I looked forward and saw we were headed for many trees.
Now I had something else to worry about which was I might impact trees with my face at 30 mph but luckily the front part of the Avalanche hit the trees and this slowed down the whole city block size of avalanche enough so I didn't die impacting any trees with my face.
So, when the mass of snow stopped I was chest deep at this point in the avalanche but it had stopped moving so I wasn't dead or smothering.
So, I struggled to get my tips of my skis above the surface of the snow and after all the energy I could muster I succeeded and soon put my shirt and jacket on to warm up a little from freezing in the snow.
Once I was on the top of the mungled snow every which way from the avalanche I found a way to get across the mungled snow. It wasn't skiing it was more like using your skis as snow shoes more than anything else.
Eventually, I got back to Bunny Flat by first skiing down to Everitt Memorial highway and then skiing down the road to Bunny Flat where there is a gate and they don't plow the snow above Bunny Flat most years so I could easily and safely ski down the road covered with snow to my car.
By God's Grace







