It is a beautiful, bright, summer day, with a gentle breeze, just cool enough to be comfortable while hiking up a steep mountain trail. Your group is well above tree line, and even though it is mid summer, there are still remnants of the past winter’s snow along the trail. In a steep ravine, this stretch of trail switchbacks across the headwall for about 1000 feet. Several hundred feet from the top of the ravine, a large patch of deep snow stretches across the trail. Suddenly, one of your fellow hikers slips in the snow and rapidly slides off the trail. After continuing to slide for 20 feet, she falls off a six-foot drop and lands on another patch of snow that also slopes downhill. Her slide continues down the snow, which also ends abruptly. She then drops another ten feet down onto a flat area in a small gully. She lands on her face and chest, hitting her face on a baseball-sized rock.
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