quote:
I assume a pit was dug for the hand tests. Would that be correct?

Awesome y’all had beacons that y’all didnt have to use because yeah, that usually doesn’t end well.

Radios are true lifelines. Rad y’all found his split board.

Seems like y’all had the right amount of training, fitness and fortune.

Well done.

The hand shear test was done on just the new snow from the previous days, so only about a foot to two feet deep. They were also done on an eastern aspect, while our ski objective was west. We didn't extrapolate a ton of data from the hand tests for the days objective, but we wanted to observe the general strength of the bond between the new snow and old snow surface.

We did not dig a formal pit that day, nor do I know if we could have found a representative area on the western aspect to dig. The spatial variability within that slope was all over the place. I had a hard time thinking of actionable things we could have done differently besides just choosing something different to ski.

The fact we didn't make a major mistake and have had many trusted guides and members of our community, including one of the SAR rescuers tell me "I would've skied it that day" makes me feel better in our decision making, but it also highlights the scariest thing in my mind -- it's just part of the risk we take out there.

A few takeaways on our terrain selection:
-We don't ski west facing lines in the Tetons much. Our quality ski terrain favors South, East, and North. Due to this, we are less familiar with the snowpack on western aspects AND we receive less observations and reports from these slopes.

-We had discussed much steeper and more technical lines for the day. We settled on this face as a more "mellow" option. 35-40 degree treed chutes. It felt safer, but it is prime avalanche terrain.

-This slope receives a ton of wind from the canyon. As such, parts of the slope are loaded with a lot of snow and a deep snowpack, where as other adjacent parts are scoured by the wind and left with a thinner, weaker snowpack. The combination of having a very thin and weak snowpack next to a very deep snowpack made this dangerous and hard to evaluate.

-Our group had an excellent day high in the alpine two weeks before and we were stoking on a great season so far. I don't think we we were being reckless in our decision to ski what we did, but I think the pattern and frequency we had been in of skiing big, complex terrain certainly played a part in ending up where we did. We could've skied the standard east face of Albright that day and had all time snow conditions in much more familiar terrain. But the allure of a new zone, fresh snow, and the simple fact that skiing is fun as frick can distract you. I've been pretty hard lined about dialing back the frequency in which I recreate in that type of terrain. The Tetons are full of hard charging skiers in the backcountry getting after it on the daily, and it's easy to get lulled into thinking it's green light. It can become an unsustainable pattern.

More thoughts:
The wave of relief I had when I realized I didn't have to perform a super complex beacon search was an incredible feeling.

Radios were a huge part in the success and efficiency of our rescue. I can't emphasize their importance enough. 3 of the 4 of us also had satellite devices, but luckily we were able to leave one person in cell service for direct contact with SAR.

I'll also pat ourselves on the back for having a rescue tarp and extra layers to keep Charlie warm while we waited (not long at all) for the heli. Once we got him into the sun, and warming, everything started trending in the right direction.

Thanks for the kind words