Hey guys,
So I'm in a bit of a fix and thought I'd see what you guys though. Last March I was in Colorado where I live, skiing over spring break, and ended up going up to A-Basin for the day with my buddies girlfriend, as him and his friends all had the Copper/WP Pass, and me and her both had the 5-Mountain Pass. We got an early start and got up to A-Basin and it was dumping all morning, and the conditions were pretty awesome, especially being a weekday and the mountain being pretty much empty. This girl is definitely one of the best chick skiers I know; she is from Aspen and rips and I was stoked to find someone who could hang with me and was as psyched as I was to be out there all day.
We hit up the Pali Chutes most of the morning, and around noon, decided to go hit up Loveland Pass, as I thought there might be more fresh up there since it had been dumping all morning. We hopped in my truck and drove up to the top of the pass, and hit up the trees on the front side of the pass, the lower-angle terrain that seems to be the most popular area at the pass. I wanted to avoid the higher angle above treeline stuff because I didn't think she had a beacon, and the visibility was bad.
We ended up having an awesome day of shreddin freshies, and a few days later, I headed down to Tucson, AZ, for a semester-long exchange program at the University of Arizona. I just got back to Golden, CO last week, and I ended up hearing through a mutual friend that this girl's friends [who I had considered good friends of mine] were really pissed off at me, becuase they thought I had lied to this girl about having a beacon when we were skiing at Loveland Pass that day the previous March. I had a beacon on me, but it was an ACR PLB Beacon, meant for solo use, which I carry because I ski a lot of backcountry by myself. Yes, I know that skiing backcountry by yourself is questionable, but that's an entirely different discussion so I won't bring that up here.
Anyways, I had no idea she actually did have a beacon she was wearing, and I figured we would be fine as we were only skiing the safe low-angle stuff in the trees. Loveland Pas is like my second home and I have probably skied hundreds of days up there in the past 4 years, and I feel I know the area extremely well and was not putting her or myself in risk. I have triggered a class 3 avalanche in one of the chutes on the west side, from which I had to partially dig out my partner, so I think I have some respect for the terrain. The entire time me and this girl were skiing we were within visual contact of each other, and as usual I carried a pack with my shovel, first aid kit, ect.. and was wearing my avalung. The thing is, this was so long ago I really don't remember if she had said anything about wearing a beacon, but I don't remember her doing so.
Her dad was a ski patroller at Aspen who was killed in an avalanche, which I had known about beforehand, so I guess it was stupid of me to assume she didn't have a beacon. Anyways I feel really bad and aren't sure how to apologize to her and her friends who apparently hate me now; I think they are overreacting a little bit though, especially as I have skied with all them before, and on previous trips to both Whistler and Jackson Hole with these people, didn't think they neccesarily respected the terrain they were skiing in terms of safety. It's been so long since this happened I figured it might have just blown over by now, but apparently not. I don't know how to apologize, should I just be like "hey, I fucked up alright, sorry." Anyways, and Ideas on how to remedy this situation would be cool.
Peace,
Phil
