It's been an awesome season here in the Tetons, and across the west. Instead of dropping in and sharing a bunch of rad pictures from the season, I thought I'd share about a major avalanche accident I was involved in.

My group of friends and partners are very intentional in our backcountry travel. We discuss plans, snowpack, timing, etc. in depth before we go out each day. I, especially, play the part of being the devil's advocate (friends might say wet blanket instead) a lot. "It could be safe, but what about..." The fact is backcountry skiing, especially in big terrain, is an inherently dangerous activity. And the more time you spend doing it, the more your cumulative exposure to the risks adds up, even if you are being intentional and making good decisions. Margins become thinner the more you are out there. While I don't think there was a major red flag or mistake we made on January 16th, I think there are some lessons to be learned from our accident.

The deep avalanche we triggered was not listed as a problem of concern on the days avalanche forecast, and hadn't been for multiple weeks. One of the most respected mountain guides, and a personal mentor of mine, skied the same line two days before. My buddy Charlie got unlucky and hit the sweet spot for the slope to go big. We might've been able to ski the same slope 10x more times and not had it slide. That's the nature of a persistent slab problem -- high consequence, low likelihood.

After one thing went wrong, everything else after that went right. Charlie is back on snow after 6-8 weeks of recovering from 7-8 broken ribs, a lacerated liver, and punctured lung. We are all using this accident to guide our future in the mountains. It's been a lot of ups and downs -- happy we are all still alive, but also a good bit of questioning, doubts, anger, confusion, sadness, and fear.

We recorded a podcast with Teton County Search and Rescue that highlights rescues around this area. I thought it was an awesome discussion, and am excited for it to be released. Will come back and link it when it's out.

For now, anyone interested in reading more can check out a first hand report I wrote up the day after the accident.

Albright Avalanche - January 16, 2023