Close call in the snowzone
Incidentfisalelstone · Mar 14, 2021 · Duffey
Quick report
- Weather
- cloudy, cold, stormy, windy
- Ride Type
- alpineSlopes
- Riding Quality
- terrible
- Snow Conditions
- hard, windAffected
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSnow
Spent one night in the snowzone area, Saturday was warm with freezing levels close to 2000m, calm winds early in the day, steadily increasing in the evening and throughout the night. Sunday saw snowfall of 5cm throughout the day with high winds dying down by 5pm. Winds generally seemed to come out of the south and resulted in rapid snow transport from Saturday night into Sunday. South, east, and west aspects had a sun crust, sheltered aspects had dry snow, we aimed to ski north aspects. Original objective on Sunday was to ski Eeyore peak but low visibility and high winds discouraged us. We decided to head back to our camp at the lake (1900m) via a plateau with a few runs down to the lake. Wind slab formation was evident in several locations causing us to search for a less affected slope. We came across a 30 degree gulley run with less loading at the entrance but a convexity at the top. Skiier bypassed the convexity and cut across the slope to an island of safety about 10m down from convexity. A crack shot across the slope 1m above the skiier, closed, then another opened 3 m above the skiier and then along both sides of the gulley. Slope did not release but skiier was trapped on island of safety. Potential runout was 150-200m, estimated slab depth was 20cm, slide could have been size 1-2. Numerous escape strategies proved dangerous as snow around island of safety was sugary, and the terrain was steep and rocky. As a result Pemberton search and rescue was called and extracted all 3 members of the party. No one was harmed
Incident
- Group Size
- 3
- Terrain Trap
- noTrap
- Group Activity
- skiing
- Number Injured
- 0
- Number Involved
- 1
- Number Caught Only
- 1
- Number Fully Buried
- 0
- Snow Depth Trigger Point
- variable
- Terrain Shape Trigger Point
- planar
- Number Partly Buried Able Breathing
- 0
Ski cut on north aspect slope (30 degrees) resulted in 10m crack 3m above skiier with propagation along the sides (end to end in the gulley), depth of slab unknown but best guess was 20cm. Slope did not slide, skiier was trapped at island of safety. No one was harmed.