>>293812Also, that's a lot of "terrain choices" that we teach.
You never want to put yourself in a situation where you have to use your gear. "It's not that i'm afraid of dying, I just don't want to do it today."
The mountain will be there tomorrow. Wait for the right day, the right snow conditions, the right attitude, the right people in your group, the right weather, etc. Especially if it's a higher-risk event - climbing a big hill, dropping a cornice, entering a terrain trap, whatever.
One avalanche instructor I know from years ago once told me "If a person is involved in an avalanche, a mistake has been made". I sort of agree with that, but at the same time there's no way to absolutely know whether something's going to slide or not, and you're rarely going to be 100% clear of avalanche terrain in the mountains.
Days with higher avy danger are often the best days to ride - good snow. But I'm making much different terrain decisions those days than I am on the bluebird days where the snowpack is settled and I'm not seeing any red flags alerting me to the possibility of a slide like >pic related.
