Southern San Juan
AvalancheAlex Ekey · Feb 19, 2024 · Northern San Juan
Weather
A warm beautiful day with intense sun. Some light wind up high that helped keep things a little cooler.
Snowpack
A 1-5” wind slab on top of a dusting of soft snow. The rest of the pack was very stiff. We located the melt freeze crust from early February at about a meter deep. We did a ECT and the wind slab was quite reactive, but the rest of the pack was resistant to cracking/ propagating.
Avalanche
Lookers left of the saddle there are several small couloirs. We aimed for the third to the left of the saddle it is the skinniest and longest of the ones near the saddle, with the most consistent fall line. SSE aspect. We skinned up the ridge and approached it from the top. We all grouped up at the top of the run. The ridge was mostly stripped of snow, being just grass and a small amount of sastrugi. This allowed us to get right up the start of the couloir relatively safely and without committing to the slope. I started to stomp on the top of the couloir trying to asses the level of wind effect. There was a semi stiff wind slab that would crack with enough force. It had become more stubborn and was probably a day or two old. I continued to stomp the top of the slope hoping that if there was a wind pocket I could get it to pop. The stomping just cracked off platter size chunks but nothing ran. We took skis off and I stepped down on some rock on the side of the couloir and was able to dig a small pit and we did two hasty saw-cut meter deep ECTs. No collapse or propagation on the early February melt freeze crust which was a meter deep. The wind slab collapsed and propagated on p1. One group member adamantly stated he didn’t think we should ski the couloir because of the reactiveness of the wind slab. The rest of the group and myself were still not ready to turn back. We agreed to try a proper ski cut. I performed two ski cuts at the top of the couloir from one side to the other. The second being being a couple meters further down the couloir. Neither released the slab although the cuts broke through it. With the ski cut results I stated that I thought I could ski the couloir safely. I noted a few safe spots to tuck off just in case. I made two more cautious turns and then started two open it up. On the third turn, a right handed turn more in the middle of the couloir, I noticed all of the snow was moving with me. I tucked off hard into the left hand side of the couloir against the cliff and the snow flushed passed me. The hard windslab had broken about 10’ above me, maybe 3/4 of the way down the couloir. I then skied the bed surface out the remaining two thirds of the couloir and safely out into the basin. Not a big enough slide to burry someone and a clean runout, but very glad I was able to get out of the way. I Radioed back to the group when I was out. Without the support of the lower slab the rest of the group was able to cut the remaining top section of slab and skied the bed surface. Reflecting now on the incident we should have listened more to the voice of caution in our group. Speaking personally the “mini golf” nature of the terrain, and having skied it many times before, made me overconfident. Windslabs come in all shapes and sizes and the hardness/ stubbornness of this one caught me off guard.