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I have started poaching and want to do more backcountry. Reading the avie threads I often see people take the valley e.g. this picture

 

http://www2.gol.com/users/jiko/pics/03.jpg

 

I know the advantage in that you can go from wall to wall of the valley, but the results in that thread is that they was multiple avalanches.

 

If you are a beginner, like me. I would of taken the upper left tree line. Would this also of been a bad mistake? I would of done this because of a shallower angle as I am not so comfortable on 30 + gradients.

 

If other people want they can add their own questions here.

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 Quote:
Originally posted by YellowSnow:
I loved you photo of poaching on Kagura
which one?

Diaries of others are the worst advisor, because they talk about "past conditions" not "present".
If you are really interested in BC you should start studying so that you are able to evaluate the conditions of the slope you are planning to ride.
And as FT said don’t rush!
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I really wouldn't recommend that area to beginners. In general it's steeper, there are lots of terrain traps, it's almost all south-facing and can get really baked. Also this year the creek at the valley bottom has lots of holes (+2m deep) meaning you can't ride the traverse out, you have to climb back out at some point.

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to answer your question re: the tree line. The trees would indicate a safer way down ie staying on a ridge. The valley u refer to is a terrain trap = more danger. That said, you would have to know more about the conditions. Some days the trees could be safer, other days not.

Taking a course is strongly recommended if you're going to be riding in that terrain

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'Don't rush' is great advice but hard to follow if you've got an appetite for good lines. I think a lot of people are --like --"Shit! I shouldn't have done that. I should get some avi training." I guess you guys have got your stuff together now, but were you always that sensible? I haven't been... and now I'm thinking "I should get some avi training"...

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 Quote:
Originally posted by ger:
I guess you guys have got your stuff together now, but were you always that sensible?
Nope, I have done many stupid things in the past, thats for sure. I am trying to advice someone so that he doesnt go through the mistakes I did. Maybe I was lucky that day and maybe he wont be as lucky as I was.
PS: I don’t consider my self experienced, I am hardly beginner-intermediate when it comes to BC.
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OK... let's hear some 'dumb-ass' BC stories from the veterans (misadventures, stupid trips, etc.). I'm no veteran in winter BC but I've learned a bit since my first trip...

We were sitting in a cafe in Vancouver and I was -- like --"Gotta get out of the damn city"-- My friend Marty had a hiking book so we picked a relatively short trek just past Squamish. But it was early February and there was a storm coming. GF was adamantly against it and fully expected us to die. She was over-reacting a bit of course. ...So we walked up in the snow the next morning with our tents and crappy sleeping bags and new Merril hiking boots, making deeper holes as we got higher. It got pretty tough near the end, snow falling heavily all the while. We finally made it into the sub-alpine medow we were aiming for and --low and behold--there was a hut..... and a highschool backcountry club skiing up behind us. So we spent the night in a warm cabin with a bunch of 17 year old girls who like giving massages while our GFs thought we were.... DEAD. So far so good. Anyway, I don't know how much snow fell that night but it seemed like about a meter. In the morning Marty was trying to rig up some sort of sled thing using branches, while I was having a great time swimming in the snow. I figured, we'd just let a bunch of skier go ahead and then walk down the low gradient slope in their tracks. Which is what we did. We slowly made our way down making deep post holes in the trail which skiers before us had so graciously broken in. As we got lower there were day skiers coming up and others still coming down and each one who passed us cussed us out for screwing up the trail. One guy rambled on about how someone could break their neck... 'BREAK THEIR NECK???!!!' There's two meters of snow everywhere --how's someone going to break their neck? 'Twist their ankle' --maybe -- but not 'break their neck'!! Anyway, we just apologized. We made it back. No one twisted thier ankle as far as I know. End of story. Our GFs were happy, though mine broke up with me a couple months later. The lesson learned was "Don't go into the BC with a pair of hiking boots in the middle of winter during a snowstorm".

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 Quote:
Originally posted by ger:
So we spent the night in a warm cabin with a bunch of 17 year old girls who like giving massages while our GFs thought we were.... DEAD.
Sounds like a nightmare to me...... :p

If you plan to do more BC trips like that PM me ok,
please ok
yes?
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Thanks for the advice, but I think I will rush it.

Even though I fractured my arm this season. At the moment I am doing a lot of catching up, I wasn't so adventurous when I was young, but now I want to experience everything. In an other thread somebody mentioned that you don't learn anything with out falling. I so agree with that. That extra push sometimes hurts, but you learn so much by taking some risk.

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