Sled Ski Slides
Quick reportben-hawkins · Feb 1, 2025 · McGregor
Quick report
- Weather
- cold, cloudy
- Ride Type
- openTrees, denseTrees, mellowSlopes, steepSlopes
- Stayed Away
- convexSlopes, steepSlopes, openTrees
- Riding Quality
- amazing
- Snow Conditions
- deepPowder
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSnow, avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionSound
We sledded into the north side of Bearpaw Ridge for some below treeline powder skiing. Near the ridge top (1300 m BTL) we entered an old wildfire that left an area of sparse trees and alder. While the skiing was amazing avalanche conditions were touchy and we saw 5 size1.5-2 avalanches all in close proximity. These all failed on a layer of large surface hoar buried 45 cm under the last storm. Once we got back to the dense trees the skiing was amazing despite the cold.
Avalanche
- Trigger Type
- natural
- Wind Exposure
- noWindExposure
- Avalanche Size
- 1.5
- Slab Thickness
- 45
- Start Zone Aspect
- N
- Vegetation Cover
- sparseTrees
- Start Zone Incline
- 37
- Avalanche Character
- stormSlab
- Number Of Avalanches
- 2-5
- Start Zone Elevation
- 1250
- Weak Layer Burial Date
- 2025-01-17
- Avalanche Observation
- 12hrsAgo
- Weak Layer Crystal Type
- surfaceHoar
- Start Zone Elevation Band
- btl
- Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
- 2025-02-02T22:00:00.384Z
We saw 3 natural avalanches, a skier accidental (see incident), and one skier remote ranging from size 1.5 to 2 during our ski day. They all failed on a touchy layer of surface hoar approximately 13 mm long and 45cm deep under a soft slab. All 5 avalanches occured in a in a narrow elevation band around 1250-1300m in an area of sparse trees and alder.
Incident
- Terrain Trap
- noTrap
- Group Activity
- skiing
- Snow Depth Trigger Point
- average
- Terrain Shape Trigger Point
- planar
We toured up through dense trees before the terrain opened up into an old wildfire that left an area of sparse trees and alder. We carefully picked our way up using the terrain and tree cover, but we did have one shooting crack as we toured. Near the top of the small burn we saw a natural avalanche on surface hoar fail on an approximately 36-40° slope. We decided to turn back from the sparse trees and steep slopes above the burn and head back down to the dense forest using a mellower (30-33°) opening we had taken up. We talked about exit routes and safe regroups before we chose to ski the main open pitch back down to the dense trees cover one at a time. The first skier triggered a size 2 avalanche in their second turn that propagated out to their left and was ~60 m wide and ran 80-90 m. They managed to ski towards the edge before being knocked over and were left on the surface near the tail of the soft debris. The skier was ok with no injuries and only a missing ski pole. Later we noted a size 1.5 skier remote as we left the meadows.