Skiing by yourself, especially out in the woods on a mountain isn't the best idea. But, I was young then and I just did stuff when I wanted to or was inspired.
This particular day I was trying to ski from Horse Camp to Upper Panther Meadows in a traverse because they are at similar altitudes I believed then. However, I had cross over to the other side of the valley from Horse Camp and was tooling along on a really good traverse stride with mountaineering skis on when all of a sudden about a city block chunk of snow broke loose with me in the middle of it and the huge block of snow turned to much and I tried really hard to stay on top of it so I didn't die. But, even as hard as I tried to keep kicking my skis so I would stay on top and not drown in the snow I still was waist deep in snow when the block of snow was finally stopped by a bunch of trees somewhat. Though I felt incredibly grateful to be alive rather than to have my body to have melted out of the snow months into the future (probably in summer) I also realized it was pretty stupid to ski alone above tree line any time but especially when it can do what it did to me then.
That was the last time I tried to ski above tree line alone. I was likely in my late 20s or early 30s then.
If you can survive these experiences often you don't want to repeat your mistakes. At least that's me.
I had already learned not to camp in the snow in 1970 when I almost froze to death in an emergency snow cave because of a complete white out with friends. That taught me personally, "Don't camp in the snow". Then this new experience taught me, "Don't ski above tree line alone when you might accidentally cause an avalanche because of the snow conditions.
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