They tried to kick blocks of snow from the cornice, hoping a tumbling chunk might trigger an avalanche. “All we were getting were crumbles. We just couldn’t get a big enough block to go,” said Bryan Wickenhauser, a champion ski mountaineering racer from Gunnison. “So yeah, there was some hesitancy. But we were all committed. No one was going the other way.”
Going into the backcountry appeals to many. (Snowmass/Facebook)
Recent efforts by ski and snowboard resorts and towns to penalize those who go illegally under the ropes reached fruition when Snowmass issued fines to four skiers who went into a closed area.
At the halfway mark, the 2013-2014 winter season has been nothing if not out-of-the-ordinary – some would say even quirky.
