Front Range
AvalancheAnonymous · Apr 8, 2017 · Front Range
Weather
Moderate to Strong winds out of the west (but swirling all over in the basin), about 4ËšC, Scattered.
Avalanche
Today we (grp of 5) witnessed three splitboarders skinning below and west of the Drainpipe on Parnassus today shortly before noon or so. Saw the slide but couldn't see if people were involved. Shortly after saw beacon search begin. From afar, it appeared as if one of the friends made a quick rough beacon search on foot, and when he was about 20m out, he must of heard his friend because he b-lined it to where he began digging. We ripped skins and made our way down to assist. Three in our group headed down immediately (one is an EMT).By the time our three guys got there, they had located and extracted their friend. Two of us made a slower decent and took photos of the slide (after radio confirmation of successful recovery). I’d say 5-10 minutes tops before guy was fully out. They were skinning up near a very "pregnant†wind-cross-loaded NE slope around 3600m. By their account, first guy began to cross the slope and a couple steps in it released and took him for about a 60m - 80m ride. Guy was nearly fully buried, head downhill, with only his face exposed and no injuries). Wearing float pack, did not deploy as the trigger was still stowed away. No other signs of N or human activity. Another group in the area reported skiing the NE/E face and experienced “solid†conditions. Hmmm. Snowmachiners in the area high-marking on E/SE slopes. No issues.