Hard Week

Last week was rough. I had a long Sunday brick and felt tired Monday. So what do I do? I take Monday off like a wuss should do. Actually I'm trying to be a little more in tune with my body so I don't over-train. Tuesday was a good run and Wednesday was masters swim. I got absolutely worked swimming! My shoulder is still coming around in that department. I can easily do 60 pull-ups in a workout but I can barely swim a mile without my shoulder starting to hurt. Thursday was a day off. Swimming worked me that hard. Plus I wanted to do a good hard workout on my birthday. Friday ended up being a negative split miles for 4.5 miles, then sprints for another mile. Finally the weekend came and I did a bike workout with a friend. I did a 2 hour tempo ride with two short sprints in the middle. I felt worked at the end! I may need to change up my training schedule because I feel like I should have made more headway by now. Sunday was absolutely rough! I was way too tired to do anything. I sat on my couch most of the day and watched TV. Super Productive.

Other than the workouts being rough work was also a bit trying. I had a lot of projects put on my lap last week and had to do a bit of traveling and get a presentation together. Definitely a long week. My workouts tend to suffer a bit whenever I get really stressed out at work. After this next week things slow down a bit for me... for a week I hope.

Boring

This is where life has been spent lately. Well, first off I should say I did manage to take 4 full days off. It was awesome. Although, I got quite bored when I still woke up at 5am and didn't have anything to do. So I watched awesome early morning TV. Pretty cool. Saved By The Bell and Married With Children... so good!

Can I say how boring riding the trainer is? It was crazy boring! You sit in one place and pedal. That's it. I either listen to music or watch TV while I'm doing it so I have some entertainment. Thursday I kicked off the new training block. One hour of easy pedaling on the trainer. It was awesome. It actually felt great to get back on to the new training schedule. Hopefully this time I won't screw it up and lose track of my workouts.

Speaking of the bike, below is the new carbon fiber aerobars! Pretty awesome. They are much more comfortable than my old set. Plus, these have the s-bend aerobars which I like much better.

And speaking of gear, below are my running shoes. By the way, I have apparently turned this into my gear blog.

When I started training again this year my old Saucony running shoes were really hurting my right foot. My left foot felt great but the outside of my right foot was absolutely dying! I had to take 3 days off every time I ran. Not awesome. So I decided to start in on a new shoe search. Here's what I came up with: KSwiss Blade Light and Zoot Kapilani. Now that I've tested them both out I found I like the Zoot's for running and the KSwiss for cross training.

The problem with the K's was that they were a bit too stiff in terms of cushion. I need soft padding because of my right ankle and left knee. Since they were a bit too stiff I turned to the Zoot's and they were amazing! great run platform and movement. Great cushioning. Extremely comfortable. The only downside was that I like the way the K's moved from heel to toe. They are extremely smooth throughout the entire foot movement.

Anyways, the Zoot's have been working well and I'm extremely pleased with them.
Last but not least is my realization that I need to work on injury prevention. Given the multitude of problems I've had in the past I decided to purchase the Trigger Point rollers and ball. They allow me to roll out my leg problems and get them fresh for the next day. I have been having problems with my left IT band and since I've been rolling it out with the quadballer (as its called) I've been feeling a lot better. So, a big thumbs up from me on TP Therapy.
Now I'm off to a quick core and upper body workout. Box jumps, cable machines, medicine balls... good times! I'm hoping I'll feel better than I did yesterday during my 3 mile run. I felt like it was ten miles after I ended up positively splitting my miles (ie. going slower each mile). Work legs... Work!!!!

Long Week

Last week was rough! Work was much too stressful and the workouts were way too tough.

First off, my monthly reports covering my five counties were due last week as we released press numbers on Wednesday. After I already had two of them done, I was informed by my boss over our monthly conference call that we were changing the format of these reports slightly. This means I got to redo two of the reports I already wrote. That was awesome. I was on edge until Thursday when I finally sent in my reports. Then what happens? One of the other economists was reading through mine to check for errors and since she was running a little late getting it back to me I already sent it in... with errors! Yep, I had to quickly redo that one because I honestly have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote a couple sentences in there. Feeling good about that one!

The workouts were really tough last week. I go in 4 week cycles and last week was week 3, the hard one. Week 1 is build-up from a recovery week 4 previously, then week 2 pushes harder on into week 3 which is the peak for each cycle. Week 4 is the recovery week where I am now in active recovery rather than full rest recovery.

Since last week was my week 3 I was dying. Monday was a 6 mile run, Tuesday was upper body cross training, Wednesday was a 3 mile easy run followed by 2 miles of speed repeats, Thursday was another cross training workout done primarily with a medicine ball and the cable machine, then Friday was another 6 mile run (which was supposed to be faster than Monday, but it was much slower). Saturday was a pretty easy hour ride on the trainer followed by upper body for an hour. Now today starts the recovery.

Week 4 is always nice in the cycle because I get to take it easy, but I really hate taking these weeks. No matter how many times I go through these cycles I feel like I'm losing my fitness, when in all actuality it's gaining when I come back on week 1 with noticeable improvements.

In other news it finally snowed in town. It's been snowing up on the pass in the Cascade's, but not down here. It's actually remained quite nice for the last couple weeks, but yesterday the snow came and the temperature has dropped hard! Looking forward to some skiing finally. Hopefully there will be enough for a Thanksgiving opening and I'll actually have something to do. Otherwise I'm just going to hang out and train. Good stuff.

Training

I had it in my head that I'd start using the blog to keep track of my training over the winter, but haven't made much use of that. So now I'm going to start keeping track of things a little better and actually get some use out of this thing!

It's finally gotten cold around here and outside activities are at an end as far as I'm concerned (besides skiing of course). I am apparently too much of a wuss to ride my bike when it's cold and I hate running outside when it's cold. Yep... it is what it is. In grad school I managed to ride my bike to work/school everyday during the winter for the first year, but after I went sliding through a stop sign on my side with my bike right next to me I decided it wasn't a great idea at a certain point.

Training has been going real well the last month. I got a few 80 mile rides in and managed to only bonk during one! I was seriously relying on my americano I had at the turnaround point. It didn't really push me to the end, but it helped.

I've been trying hard to focus on my run this year to round out my swim and bike. Hopefully it works. I started off by getting new shoes. My Saucony's were really hurting my right foot lately, so I decided to try KSwiss and Zoot. The Zoot's won. They're so comfortable and don't rub anywhere. I did really like the way the KSwiss ran, they were really smooth on the entire foot transition, but were a little stiff in the cushioning department.

Anyways, I got 6 miles in today with a good cross-training workout in after that. A solid two hour workout. I had to bring an extra shirt with me to the gym because after about 10 minutes running I'm about through a shirt. And yes, I feel really cool changing shirts when I'm halfway through my workout.

And speaking of working out, I just finished watching Ironman Louisville and man there's some inspiration! Someday...

Oktoberfest

Right next to Wenatchee is Leavenworth the Bavarian Village. Yep, the Keystone of the West!

It's actually a pretty cool town but it just reminds me of a tacky tourist trap. Every year they host Oktoberfest the first three weekends in October and Matt, Amy, and I hit it up the first weekend. It was a pretty sweet shin-dig but a bit on the pricey side.

There were 4 stages for shows that had classic polka music, massacred polka music, and classic German dances from some groups straight out of Munich, Germany! It was actually a pretty cool shin-dig. It wasn't anything big, but did have quite a few people. The area of town that's sectioned off has most of a street right off of downtown and is big enough to pack in some serious crowds. It was pretty full while we were there, but from what I've heard the last weekend has the most people and is shoulder to shoulder for blocks! Kind of glad I had no part in that.

For next year we're coming up with some classic German garb to fully partake in festivities. There were surprisingly a lot of people that were dressed up and even quite a few older people that looked like they were straight out of Germany.

Anyways, I'm keeping this one short and sweet. The festivities were pretty sweet, and I'm actually looking forward to next year. Plus it'll be right after I'm done with triathlon season. Hot dang!

91 miles

Got in a nice long ride today. I wanted to shoot for at least 70 and maybe up to 80... added on a few more because the last little bit was slightly longer than I thought. It was a great ride though.

I started heading north of Wenatchee but took 97A instead of 97. 97A leads straight up towards Lake Chelan (which is amazing by the way) and starts with fairly flat roads that lead to a big climb up and over a pass. This part was not fun. Not fun at all.

After the nice flat ride it starts heading up and over the pass. This picture below is the nice little tunnel you go through before you hit a short valley that leads to Lake Chelan.

The fun part about going through the tunnel is their safety measures. It is nice and short, but come on... a button to turn on flashing lights that tells the motorists that there's a cyclist going through the tunnel... is there nothing better? For instance... make the tunnel wider initially rather than overlooking the details. Anyways, pretty funny. The button is right before the tunnel and it reminds me of a cross walk... except you go through a tunnel.

After I made it up to the Lake Chelan area I stopped at a coffee shop and downed an americano and muffin. I'm a sucker for that combo for some reason. Love having muffins with an americano. It was such a nice day I couldn't pass up the opportunity to hang out by the lake and watch the boats. Seems pretty exciting doesn't it?

After I managed to sit by the lake for an hour I hopped back on the bike with some slightly sore legs already and start pedaling up and over the pass again to town. All said and done, the ride ended up being 91 miles. I was pooped! I really need to plan out my nutrition better on these long rides. All I took along was a bottle of Hammer Perpetuem and a gel. Other than that it was water, coffee and a muffin. I have a feeling I'm going to be sore tomorrow....

Oh, and the best part of this is I get to sit in a car for a few hours to head over to Olympia for a couple meetings. Sitting in a car with sore legs is not fun. Anyone care to drive me?

New Bike

I have been wanting this bike for years and finally made the plunge!

I am super stoked about this bike. Cervelo has to be the greatest bike brand, period. They have been focusing on road and aero designs for years and years. While other companies are off designing mountain bikes and cruisers, Cervelo is redesigning one of their road frames to make it even better. What's actually quite amazing is that they've had some of the same designs for years and haven't changed a thing! And these are pro bikes we're talking about, not just some bike to ride around town.

Enough of the ranting. This is my Cervelo P2. Isn't he gorgeous? I decided it's a he even though it'd be better for a male to be "riding" a she. Anyways, now I just need to come up with a name for the bike....

I've already gotten him out on a few rides this week and it is amazing. I've never ridden this fast in my life. Pretty sweet rig. I tried to take a couple pictures of the ride I normally go on, but only a few really turned out well. This is right along the Columbia River directly north of Wenatchee.

I've been really impressed with some of the roads around here and extremely unimpressed with others. When I first came out here I was riding my bike quite a bit just to figure out town and see what it has to offer. Well, I found a lot of broken glass in certain parts of town and an area that tends to have a lot of thorned bushes that get blown off and find their way to the road. After 4 flats in a couple of rides I just quit going there.

This last shot is a great fruit stand right along the ride. Of course there's about 5 others right along the route. All stuff that's essentially been picked that day, most likely about 100 feet from the stand. Not too shabby living in orchard country!

Labor Day Weekend

I really need to keep up with postings. I have a lot to update and I haven't been getting on it! I need to make a goal of actually getting a few posts on here every month.

First off I managed a backpacking trip with Amy and Maggie up in the Cascades just outside of Leavenworth. We went on Labor Day weekend to get in three days and two nights of goodness. Amy had done all the work for this one figuring out where we were going and camping, so all I had to do was show up. That was a pretty sweet. Well the week of the trip I kept checking the weather to see if it was going to be nice. I really wanted to take my bivy because Amy and Maggie were taking their dogs which would be sleeping in their tents. This means I either need to take a tent up just for me or else I need to check out the ol bivy. Since the weather looked nice I decided on the bivy.

The problem here is that whenever I do a trip, any trip, something goes wrong. As soon as I decided to take the bivy I knew the weather would turn and it would rain. I just knew it would. When we started hiking on Saturday it was great weather, not too hot but sunny. We went about 11 miles in to the campsite right along a lake in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. It was a pretty amazing spot. Definitely can't complain about the location.

Once the girls set up camp and we start cooking it starts getting a little colder... After dinner we hike up to another lake right in a very tight cirque and it was gorgeous. Quite the setting... After we hike back to camp and sit down for a few minutes I am getting cold. Anyone that knows me knows I am always hot. Always. Once the sun starts setting the girls head for their tents and I start to set out my bivy. As I'm doing this what happens? Yep, it starts raining. This means I'm in a glorified sleeping bag trying not to get claustrophobic while trying to stay dry at the same time. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep. I woke up at one point and the continuous rain was getting louder... and yes it was snow. What backpacking trip with me is complete without snow?

When we woke up it was raining and continued to rain throughout the day. It would quit for a while here and there and slowed up quite a bit, but it was still wet. Well we packed up camp and headed to another lake to make our hike out of this loop only 10 miles. This means it is up and over a pass and down into a huge valley. This was even more gorgeous than the other camp. It was such a great area....

Well, by this point I'm getting cold as everyone is setting up camp so while the girls go on a short hike to get the blood flowing I hop in my sleeping bag knowing I don't have enough calories to keep trying to make me warm and/or hike more (you would think that since I had a strong hunch it was going to be raining I might have packed more food in preparation of being cold and burning more calories). So I sleep the afternoon away and wake up in time to cook dinner with the girls and promptly take off to my bivy for a night of sleep in the rain again.

The next day was pretty nice and we hiked out in pretty nice weather. It seems like we were caught up in the storm at the higher altitude and if we had just hiked a couple more miles we would have been in the clear. Interesting weather....

The hike out was pretty uneventful other than once we got back to the car it did start raining again.

The last bad part of this story is that I don't have any pictures. I managed to lose my camera in the move and I had been looking everywhere for it. I knew I packed it somewhere but just couldn't figure it out before the trip. Low and behold after all this I finally find my camera while I'm looking for my bike tool. So the point is I didn't have it for the hike but I have it now.... Yep......

Surprising

I've had a week of surprises. First off, I've been getting very excited for an Ironman 70.3 next year and have started a training schedule that will take me to August of next year. I'm really dreading all the miles on the trainer and treadmill in the coming winter, but I really want to get back to doing triathlons again. There's something so amazing about going as hard as you can for as long as you can in a balled up sport. There's so much to train for and to be excited about, but it is also quite draining. Sitting inside on a winter evening pedaling a bike on the trainer is great to get the frustrations of work out, but is incredibly boring. It's the mental stamina that I've had the hardest time developing. My muscles are easy to train and my lungs are coming back already... but my mind is still having a hard time.

The big surprise, though, is that I have now changed my buying habits. What buying habits? Well, I used to spend money on climbing and camping gear... because I lived in my car and would climb a lot. Pretty easy to explain. But now that I am being civilized I am buying suits, collared shirts.... and... ties. Yes, I know what everyone is thinking and yes I did cry a little bit. Well, only a little bit. I just bought a few more shirts and ties and am looking at buying a couple more suits. At which point I start to wonder "what just happened?" I was a bum in every sense of the word and I am now trying to be a respectable part of a community. It's wild. How times change!

Anyways, things have been going well over here. I still haven't met many people, but that's how it goes. It'll be slow to get integrated into this community. I'm still trying to get in with the cycling club so hopefully I can finally find this mythical club.

Better get back to doing laundry so I have nice smelling clothes for work!

Olympic Coast

Timing

Sorry it's been so long but I haven't had much to post the last while. There hasn't been much to discuss until lately. I had been running around Washington trying to get a job and finally found one. I'm a Regional Labor Economist for the state of Washington. It's an awesome job and I'm pretty excited, but pretty nervous at the same time.

Well, I am now living in Wenatchee. A small town at the base of the Cascades. Pretty sweet location for various reasons: great biking, good hiking, great skiing, some good climbing, and best of all is the fresh fruit right from farms next to town. The only down side is there isn't a great beer store around. There are some good finds here and there, but nothing consistent.

I've also been spending the last two weeks in Olympia for work. I really liked it in the "rain forest". Plus it got me away from the 100 degree weather here... which was nice. And since I had two weekends over there I managed to get two weekends of backpacking and camping in

Olympic National Park hiking and camping on the beach. That was one for the bucket list. I've always wanted to hike and camp on the beach, and now I've finally got to do it. I don't really know how much more I really have on the bucket list, but there are some good ones left. Anyhow, back to the beach: it was amazing! Great weather... good friends... and a nice easy trip. I rarely go on easy hikes and I actually found this quite enjoyable. There's something about being on the beach knowing you're at the edge of the U.S.

Here are a few pics from Olympic National Park. I have more coming, so check back soon.

So Much...

It's been interesting around here lately. I've been throwing out applications hoping someone bites and trying to force my way in to other places. It's been a bit rough, but I'm making a go of it. "A go of it" you ask? Yeah... a "go" of it.

I managed to make a quick trip over to Seattle to see a few long lost friends and also to pester a few businesses and try to convince them to hire me. There's nothing like running around a city with a suit then sitting down at a beer bar to throw back a couple Belgians at the end of the day. How is that for a businessman cliche?

Anyway, nothing turned up of the job hunt but I've got a few leads and made a few contacts, so it was more than worth it.

More importantly post avalanche activities have been going well. I think I'm only writing this because last night I had another one of "those" nights. It will always be weird to vividly picture being buried as I'm lying in bed trying to fall asleep. I'll just be laying there listening to music when I feel a little panic creep into my head.... then I can see these thick slabs of snow bury me. It's the exact scenario of where and how I get buried; there's no change to the situation at all. Then of course I sit there in a panic for a few hours trying to get the picture out of my head so I can sleep. I hope with time this avalanche will fade into the background. I feel like I always say this but I'm going to be hopeful because I honestly have no other way to deal with this.

Here's a few shots from Seattle:

How awesome is this?

I don't know why, but I was very intrigued by this.

Right at the Market and they had a few awesome Belgians made with yeast from the Westmalle Abbey. There was also an awesome double IPA that I had with fish and chips.

Exposed this shot for almost 2 minutes around 11PM. Turned out well.

The safety measures of the ferry.

This was a great spot right when you get into Olympic National Park from the north. Pretty cool park, but it was raining... and cold... and some seriously shady towns along the way. But of course I want to make it back to do a sweet hike along the beach. Looks amazing.

Ice Climbing

I've had a hard time getting back into skiing, so I've now moved back into ice climbing. My shoulder isn't real strong yet, but holds up quite well. Especially considering that I wasn't supposed to start climbing until this summer. My shoulder was a bit sore the next couple days, but not a muscle sore. My muscles have been holding up fine, but my joint felt a little inflamed and tight. After some arnica montana though it felt great again. And I honestly can't tell you how great it felt to be hanging off a cliff again. There's something so amazing about climbing frozen water... hanging onto sharp metal objects...

On that note too, I finally ran 5 miles yesterday! Another high point. I was running 6 miles before the avalanche so I'm getting pretty close. Overall things are feeling a bit more normal. I've still had spells of insomnia a night or two a week, but that's really not bad considering it's only been a little over a month. I'm noticing this will take quite some time...

Today I received the official notice that I am done with graduate school!!! My thesis is done and I'm waiting to hear if it's going to be published. It would be exciting to hear about a published paper, but I think a few papers will come out of my thesis. Good stuff.

Anyways, I'm done with that aspect of my life and am now applying to jobs all over the country. Literally anywhere from Alaska to Delaware. There's nothing like getting turned down for jobs because you have "too much education". Really? So I'm too smart to work for you... that seems... ummm.... counterintuitive. So you don't want anyone with the ability to get promoted within your business? O.K. just making sure.

Sorry for the randomness of this post, but that's my life. Kind of all over the place right now. The recovery has been going well. I feel great at this point. I'll still have some difficulty with this for quite some time, but I've been able to deal with this and pass on my story to a lot of people. It feels good to pass on information and let other people know first hand what can happen and how to deal with a scenario like this.

Alright, I'm going to go sleep and get ready for another day of searching for jobs.

Recovery II

My emotions have been running high the last couple weeks and I don't know if it'll stop any time soon. I'm handling things quite well given the scenario, though.

First off, I already got myself back to skiing. On Friday last week my mind had been focused on skiing. I had to get back there to make things right again. As hard as it was, I made my way to Big Sky by myself and spent my morning in fear. The very first run I about lost it when the run got even a little bit steep. My mind went into a panic and I thought about the slope sliding. It's incredibly stupid in hindsight but somewhat rational when it comes down to it. My fear had me tense most of the day, but slowly my mind came around and I became one step closer to moving forward.

Speaking of unrational I think my head has been playing games with me and overcompensating for any fear I'm still harboring. You see when a person wants to backcountry ski or ice climb or alpine climb they have to prepare themselves for the worst or they'll panic when something goes wrong. We have to go into the back country thinking this could be our last day... this might be it. It's dire to reflect on the situation but we all do it. After I attempted Mt. Rainier for the first time I was forced to reflect on the dangers of my activities. For the first time I saw what risk can do to a person. It may not be something any of us think about, but indirectly our mind has come to terms with this idea. If you're hanging off the side of a cliff miles from help, your mind thinks about what to do if a rock falls and you break your leg or if your partner takes a lead fall and they break their ankle. We prepare ourselves for the possibilities... Without this mindset I'd be so much worse off.

But on the downside, preparing myself for this scenario also puts me at risk for being a little too cavalier. After dealing with my initial fear and insomnia it moved on to a developing acceptance. Acceptance didn't come too quickly, but it presented itself within a week and I was able to ski shortly thereafter. Seeing I could face my fear also forced me to accept that I will still ski and I'll still climb and I'll still put myself in dangerous situations. But it isn't because I'm being too cavalier, it's because no matter what happens to me climbing and skiing will always be my outlet. But this isn't everything. Being able to get back out there and try to enjoy something that almost killed me allowed me to see that maybe I was on borrowed time. Maybe I need to live life as full as I can. Take risks in my personal life and my active life. But this isn't how it should be. I should take this borrowed time and enhance it. I should be safer than I ever can be and learn as much as I can and just be me again.

So what if I came close to dying, I'm still me and that won't ever change. Why should this situation change me and make me safer or make me more cavalier? It shouldn't! I'll always be who I am and everyone knows that... including me. I know a few of you reading this right now are smiling and shaking your heads. You all know I'll be back out there eventually. And you know what? You're gonna love that I'm out there too. Most of you wouldn't know who I was if I sat inside all day playing video games and twiddling my thumbs.

I'll be safer than I've ever been but I'll still be out there living my life.

Recovery

The recovery has been difficult but surprisingly my mind is coming around fast. The initial few nights were terrible. I couldn't sleep well and would barely make it to an hour of sleep and would wake up for a few hours extremely panicked. I luckily wasn't having any nightmares but would wake up scared and very stressed. It was extremely unnerving. By the third night I was starting to feel better because I had a little post trauma session with my physical therapist. She has been a savior in this situation. So kind and willing to listen to my crazy antics. And extremely helpful throughout my shoulder rehab to boot. Without her going the extra distance for me I would be so much more worse off. It's honestly amazing how much she cares.

Anyways, after my session with her I felt great emotionally and physically. I slept great that night and have been doing quite well ever since. Although I have been having a slight problem actually falling asleep. When I lay down in my bed my mind apparently thinks I won't wake up again. It has been difficult, but considering it's only been a week I think I'm doing quite well.

Oh yeah, and I managed to actually move my skis. They've been in the same spot since the accident and today I finally moved them up to my bedroom.

Overall I'm feeling pretty good and am now able to move past this situation. Happy one week anniversary!!!

Avalanche

Sunday was a day you always hear about but think it'll never happen to you. My number has been up multiple times this year, but this was as bad as it could have gotten minus the fact that I was as lucky as I could have been. It was a crazy day but here I am.

Tom and I went to ski Mt. Blackmore just south of Bozeman. We made the six mile skin in and summited the peak in clear conditions. It was an absolutely amazing day. Very calm wind and an amazing wintry setting. It just felt absolutely amazing to be out again and in the environment I've missed the last couple months. Well, we sat at the summit for a few minutes and took in all of the amazing terrain.

After a few minutes on the summit we took our skins off and started inching our way down the ridge we had just skinned up. It was hard windblown snow. Going down we both made ski cuts to check the stability and couldn't even get a very unstable wind slab on top to break. Although there were some unstable layers underneath we had a hard time getting them to break. When we dropped off the ridge we made our way down into a bowl and made another ski cut. We still didn't get anything to break. Just to be sure we dug a pit and checked stability. It was a little bit of an isolated area and we got different results than what we skied directly to the left of the pit. It was amazing how much variability each area had. Looking back this should have been our stopping point. Although, at the moment we were able to ski these slopes and weren't getting any ski cuts to break. Hindsight is 20/20.

After skiing the bowl we went up and over the ridge back into the main bowl we came up. The chute we skied was just over this ridge and led into a huge open bowl. After getting a hard ski cut at the top of the chute we still weren't getting any instability. Tom skied down the chute without any problems. I sat up top and waited for him to get to a safe zone so I could ski down. After he was behind a rock outcropping I dropped in, made a few turns and heard a "whoompf" behind me. At this point I wasn't totally panicked but was a little scared something large was breaking behind me. I made it a few more turns into the chute and then my feet were swept from underneath me. I was on my back sliding down the hill and trying to keep swimming towards the surface. I was hit by something and was turned around so I was still on my back going head first downhill. Time was so slow and I honestly can't believe how far I had gone. After I started to slow down at the bottom of the hill a larger second wave of snow came down and completely buried me. I was down about three feet. At this point my right lung had been compressed and I was trying to control my breath but couldn't do it. Staying calm was the first thing I was thinking but I just couldn't do it. After about 10 quick breaths, since my entire body was compressed from hundreds of pounds of snow, I lost consciousness.

My partner had turned his beacon to search and luckily quickly found me. I can't imagine what he was thinking seeing a huge area of white and no person. When he dug me out it was about 6 minutes from when I was buried. He said when he first saw my face he thought I was dead. I wasn't responding and had snow in my mouth but he quickly noticed I was just barely breathing. He cleared my airway while yelling my name at me and I finally came around only to mumble something uncomprehensive. I then pass out again and wake up again when he almost has me entirely dug out. The first thing I tell him is: "that would have been a peaceful way to go." I vaguely remember saying this but was utterly shocked that's what I say first.

After he gets me fully dug out we both sit there in shock and note that we're some of the luckiest unlucky guys. But once I stand up I start coughing blood and basically litter the pit of which I was buried in blood. My partner starts to get worried at this point but we've only found one of my skis and would therefore have to hike the six miles out. Not an ideal situation but doable. I insist that we probe a little bit longer to look for the ski and we eventually find it and are able to ski out. It was the greatest feeling.

The ski out was the most unnerving scenario I could imagine. I was exhausted, stressed out, and my emotions were all over the place. I was happy to be alive but depressed I had to deal with my own possible death. Helpless but in control.

We made it out by 7pm. I had just about stopped coughing up blood at this point but still felt on edge since I wasn't at my house. I knew I wouldn't feel safe until I made it home and sat down in a comfortable environment. And this was the other high point of this scenario. First finding the ski and now making it back to my house.

I'm still trying to sort through the details and I haven't been able to quit thinking about this scenario constantly. There was so much going on at that moment, but this gives the big picture. Anyone who wants to know more can call me and I'll give the last of the details.

The point is: I'm out alive.