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Show Huge 2nd ay Issue- November 1996 BARNEY’S Top TEN BACK COUNTRY Tires by Brent Benson satisfy your Buddha with Tibetan food, dance in the 1. Skiing Alone Unless your Reinhold Messner, DON’T DO IT!!! Jeff Waugh (aka Jeffe) and Trevor Peterson should be example enough. 2. New Beacon Batteries Even if you changed them in April, change them again. Freshies are always better. 3. Beacon Drills Just because your roommate hid your new Pieps in the freezer and you found it doesn’t qualify you as an expert. Go to a tracked out area in a ski area and set up a mock avalanche scenario. Establish a run-out area and have someone bury a beacon. (Make. sure you turn it on, don’t laugh, it’s happened.) Take turns practicing. 4. Have a shovel and NOT a cheap one If it’s not a Voile, throw it away. You’ll be dig- ging forever with one of those plastic models which should really come with a small pail and be used on the beach. And by the way, if you think a snowboard makes an adequate shovel then I have a hole in my backyard you can help me dig with your skateboard. 5. Know CPR I need to learn this one myself. 6. Call the Avalanche Report 364.1581 Bruce and crew do an incredible job. Call regu- moonlight and have 12 sheriff cars escort you a all for a mere $25.) 7. One-at-a-time Warren-”Out’ Miller films break this rule with frightening regularity. It’s really pretty simple and, it will keep you alive. Rip your line. Get clear of potential run-out zones. Relax. Wait for your Bros. (And sis’s, sorry Ulmer) disaster does strike you, chances are that the Powderbirds will be the first on the scene to save your pelt. They’ ve been in the Wasatch since 1972 and if you haven’t then you have no right to bitch. Your arguments are comparable to moving in next to the airport and trying to get it shut down because the jet engines oes out Jerry on the hi-fl last night. Ed. Note: We agree, but with these additions. 8. Trail Breaking If your group breaks the trail, then your group gets first tracks. If you catch a touring party that has broken 51% of the trail, they still have first dibs. If you come upon a touring party “relaxing” at the top, join them, they just might share. Otherwise, ask before you snake their lines. One last item, if the trail is already broken and you hike slower than your Grandma, or maybe even Anthony Dixon, then . let those of us with two lungs pass you. 9. Terrain Traps Avoid gullies (south side coming out of Grizzly Gulch). Even the smallest of avalanches can bury you or push you into a stream. Don’t stand or stop on top of cornices. They break (Jim Jack!). Its not worth dying for a few extra turns so avoid these situations and carry a whistle so if you do get larly, not just after storms. Keep tabs on what’s in trouble, tree wells, etc., someone might hear you. going on in the snow pack throughout the year. They also have the best weather forecasts and accurate snowfall information. (Don’t miss next years fund-raising bash. Where else can you fill up on 3.2, Yelling in the back country is about as effective as talking while Grandpa’s band is playing. 10. Wasatch Powder Birds To all you Heli-Free-Wasatch dumb-asses: when The whole shovel/pieps thing: I see too many - people with one or the other but not both, it is a package deal. Also Barney, have you ever actually seen someone break a plastic shovel like the Life-Link? I sure haven’t, those things are tough as nails. Tracks: there are many different philosophies to rule number 8. The governing rule of “No Friends on a Powder Day” would seem to over ride that. Hiking: Steve Mayer says you hike slow as molasses, and every time he passes you he is going to poach your line. And should we really be taking back country advice from a guy who straight ran Wolverine Cirque last season? Another big rule would be 11. Don’t Boot up a Skin Trail. We have to keep some peace in the back country, and this is the worst back country ettiquete breach out there. You are sure to cause es country trouble. |