Matt's Avalanche Adventure

Okay, so Matt (my youngest son) is on spring break for 2 weeks. He lives in beautiful Telluride, Colorado. Last week was the first week of spring break, and every day he was calling or texting to tell me where they snowboarded. They were having an awesome time. Then no calls or texts for about 3 days......Hmmmmmm, mommy is thinking...what's up?

So, I texted him Friday night....no response.

I texted him Saturday and just texted, "Hello???"

He texted back, "Hi". I called him a bratty boy and some other things and then a few text messages later, I get this one, "I got to see an avalanche up close and personal a few days ago."

I thought he meant that they were snowboarding and saw an avalanche on another peak. Uh, no...he meant up close and personal....like he was almost in it.

"Would you like to call and tell me about it?" I texted.

"No," was his reply.

WTF Matt....spill it already was my thought!


He did call and explained that they were snowboarding in the back country (that means not at the ski resort, but just off on the mountain somewhere) and he saw the snow give way ahead of him. He was snowboarding with his friend Joe and they had their dogs with them. When Matt saw the avalanche start, his first concern was for the dogs. They just run along with them down the mountain when they snowboard.

Matt quickly snowboarded over to the left into some trees to get away from the path of the slide. His dog Luna quickly followed, but his friend's dog was only about a foot from the avalanche! The dog did come over to him in the trees and Matt watched the avalanche from there.


It wasn't a big one, but a sheet of snow about 6-12 inches deep broke away and slid down the side of the mountain. It wouldn't have been enough to bury Matt, but it could have been a painful trip down the mountain with possible injuries. The dogs would have been a different story. They may not have faired so well.

Joe also told Matt that there was another break in the snow behind him when he was going down. He sure was lucky! Matt and Joe stayed near the trees for a while and then rode down.

The avalanche was actually moving fast enough to continue it's journey across a flat area of ground and then continue down the next section of slope.


I think what frightened Matt the most was that he thought the conditions were safe that day, and they weren't. He triggered an avalanche. When they got down, they reported the slide so it could be posted online. That way other snowboarders would know that the area they were in was not stable.

So, how does mom feel about Matt's adventure? It scares the heck out of me, but a lot of the things that Matt does scare me...I also look at it as a good thing. No one got hurt, but it was frightening enough to keep him off the slopes for a few days reflecting on what happened. I know that experience will always be in the back of his mind whenever he heads for the back country and hopefully it will make him even smarter and safer.

The pictures were taken after the avalanche and the last picture is Joe and Matt's dog, Luna.