Northern San Juan
AvalancheAnonymous · Jan 31, 2020 · Northern San Juan
Weather
High clouds winds gusting out of the NE
Snowpack
Wind slab
Avalanche
R2D1.5, unsure of crown height, went the full path to the bench below the apron as the couloir opens up. The avalanche propagated just after the crux section of the descent couloir as the couloir opens up and dog legs towards a north facing aspect. I felt a hard slab and decided to try and ski cut before dropping in, as I cut the short distance across, the snow fractured a little above me and the entire slope started to fail. I was caught up in the slide and was unable to ski out of it due to the narrow nature of the couloir. Once I realized that I was fully in the slide and unable to control my descent; I deployed my airbag. I was entrained in the avalanche and couldn’t see anything, everything was dark and I was turning violently in the slide, when everything slowed down and stopped I was on top of the snow surface with my feet downhill and I was in a seated position. I was able to retrieve one ski that was sticking straight up in the debris pile and my poles were of to skiers left on top of the debris pile. I was not injured and ski’d out to 550 with one ski.