The Notes I Keep in my Backpack

What if?

That’s a question I ask myself every time I turn on my beacon. What if. What if I don’t come back?

I do my best to ski safely. I pick my partners mindfully, I read the reports, keep track of the entire year of snowpack, select my routes to minimize exposure, select mostly low-angle, no-probability terrain, wear an avy pack, etc. One day recently it hit me hard and I asked the question as I was making my gear checklist for a bigger line I was skiing the next day. What if?

That’s when I wrote the notes.