Gearing up for the ski season

Since we basically had one of the most weakest summers that I can remember, I have decided to move on to the snowboard and ski season. I just ordered my season pass last week and now I am looking into purchasing a new avalanche beacon. As you may or may not know there are a lot of options out there. I have decided to go with the BCA tracker DTS beacon and transceiver. I am replacing my baby blue 1990’s Ortovox transceiver that only worked on 3 channels.  The BCA is a well known fairly high quality brand. It is interesting that you can buy and transceiver like the Ortovox for around $40 to 50 used or the BCA for $250 to 400.

I guess my take on it is what is your life worth if you get buried or covered up in an avalanche or tree well? When buried, minutes count so it’s best to have a tool that can find and locate individuals quickly. I plan on doing a lot of BC this year (at least every Saturday) in the Alpine Lake Wilderness area. Lots of amazing access to fairly large peaks via snow shoeing & sleds. I have been spotting peaks and access to them on my dirt bike all summer. When going into the backcountry if it is at a ski resort or the real deal I always carry my beacon to save my bacon. Normally, if I am riding with friends their is at least one other individual wearing a peep. Over the years I found the best things is really looking at the snow conditions, slope and always have an exit strategy. Also brushing up and not getting rusty on you peep skills ever few months is also good practice. Even with all this you can still find yourself in a bad position.  

Now it is time to strengthen the core, do some Broga and get some of those un-comfortable back breaking crunchers in.