Safety Early season considerations

[Slim]

Here is a nice (two part) video discussing early season dangers and strategies.
He doesn’t delve into a avalanche risk, but covers many other aspects.
Not really much new iformaniton fr most people I would think, but a great ‘mental warmup’ for the coming season.

 

[robertc3]

Depending on your location and the state of the vegetation underneath the snow, the avalanche risk can be some of the lowest you will find all season. If there are smooth rock slabs that is a great sliding surface, but talus slopes, most lower shrubs, slide alder and other taller plants provide quite a bit of terrain anchoring until they get buried sufficiently, but then it is not early season. Those early season trips can be great, but the dangers are real. I have a buddy who tore his MCL going into a creek and I came within inches of a TBI when I crashed (without a helmet) right next to a rock sticking out of the thin snow pack.

 

[Mike Rogers]

I ski every October, some years I get the whole month, other years it's just Halloween. I have a good collection of grassy slopes that are great for early season turns.

There are a number significant risks though. We lost a local skier last October when he caught a rock during a whiteout.