Nomadic van-dwelling Bavarian freeskier Bernhard Braun kept his composure after triggering an avalanche on this face, stepped on the gas and sent it off a mandatory air to evade its path. He didn’t really have many options in this scenario and it was a bang bang play but stomping the landing and riding away clean was critical. Glad he made it to a safety zone. Here’s how he describes the close call:
“I’m not gonna lie. Things got a little bit serious in there.
When I dropped into the face, I immediately realized that the snow was significantly deeper than anywhere else we skied before on that day. Meaning the wind must have loaded into this particular aspect.
My inner alarm went off straight away and I skied with caution. Ready to go fast and send in case of things starting to move. 2/3 down the line, just in front of the mandatory cliff band, I hit the weak layer and it happened.
Within seconds the takeoff got flushed over by a wave of moving snow and It became very hard to see the right spot to jump off. Luckily I scouted the cliff well on the previous run so I could put some trust into my exit plan and intuition. Still had to put the landing gear out and stomp it.
Definitely a good reminder of how important it is to properly look at things and visualize them from the skiing perspective before dropping into a line.“