Dream:  I was walking up a high angle snow slope to the summit ridge of a mountain in the rockies.  It was the same mountain that Will Gadd showed in his presentation at Tufts on Thursday night, only, he was 15 years old at the time (read: 15 year old badass).  I was following a buddy of mine whose identity was pretty non-descript in my dream but it was clear that we were climbing partners.  The snow was very deep and we were up to our waists trying to haul ourselves up to the summit ridge with snow slope extending thousands of feet below us.  Out of nowhere the whole snowpack broke free of the mountain and we started accelerating down the slope, frantically trying to self arrest with our mountaineering axes.  I’m not sure whether we ever stopped ourselves or were buried by the avalanche.  My dream changed scenes before the situation was resolved.

Here’s a short video of someone self-arresting from a fall on a snow slope, good tip is to not yell, “Did you get that on video?” before you get your wits about you.

I had several more avalanche dreams throughout the night each in a different type of scenario.  Some were ice/rock mixed climbing, some were on big mountains out west and some were in New Hampshire.  In each scenario my mind tried to walk me through what I would do and what might happen.  Would I be buried more than 2 meters (the distance your beacons stop working effectively)?  Would I be buried at all?  Did the rope get cut?  Was my partner alive?

Below I’d like to share a video of my friend Ed who was caught in an avalanche while climbing in Wyoming.  He’s one tough dude and a competent/accomplished climber.  Their situation was definitely recreated 2 or 3 times in my dream.  Granted he climbs at a much higher level than I do which exposes him to dangers I haven’t yet encountered, the chances for avalanches are still very real, especially if I want to get on bigger mountains outside of the Whites in the North East.  He’s recovering back home but has a long road ahead of him.