Northern San Juan
AvalancheAnonymous · Nov 24, 2014 · Northern San Juan
Weather
13 Degrees, blowing snow off and on.
Snowpack
Very weak layer on the bottom. Our pit measured 60 cm near treeline.
Avalanche
On November 24th, 2014 two of us were involved in a slide on Prospect bowl off of Cement Creek Road in Silverton, Colorado. The slide occurred at 2:30 p.m. We started our ascent at about 10:30 that day. The report read that the danger was considerable at or above tree line and moderate below tree line. We stopped near tree line and dug a pit. We could see a weak layer on the dirt from the early snow fall. We isolated several blocks and did a compression test. Each block held up well in this test. The final test was a ski cut above the pit which resulted in a break on the weak layer exposing the dirt. We decided to avoid the bowl and ski the trees next to it given the results of the test. I went first, made a few turns and waited for my partner. He went next. He was near the edge of Prospect bowl when the avalanche propagated about 40 yards above him and pulled him into the middle of the bowl. The slide spanned the entire chute and broke about 60 centimeters deep, exposing the ground. I watched as he rode the slide sitting upright. After about 75 yards the slope steepened and I couldn’t see over the ridge that it formed. At that point I began to ski down the ice and rock path left behind from the slide. I got to the spot where I lost sight of him and saw a patch of small trees. A ski was in one of them. While trying to get through the trees I fell and double ejected from my skis. I decided to start my beacon search from this point. Just before I switched to search mode I saw movement another 75yards down the slope. It was his ski boot. I ran down the slope to reach him. When I reached my ski partner the only thing exposed was his leg from the knee down. He had stopped moving. I started shoveling just above his leg, realized his orientation, moved up and hit his backpack and then moved up immediately and uncovered his head. His lips had turned blue and he wasn’t moving at all. I cleared his airway and yelled his name. At that point his eyes opened and he started shivering. Knowing he didn’t need to be resuscitated I continued shoveling. By the time he was half way dug out he was able to communicate with me. When he was out entirely we were able to see that he had not broken any bones but had taken a big hit on his femur which was very painful and made it difficult to walk. He did not have a concussion or any bleeding. I hiked back up the slide debris to look for our skis. I found one of mine and wasn’t able to recover either of his. The slide ripped down the middle of the bowl but the sides where still loaded with unstable snow. Eventually we found a safe route into the trees. We began what would be a 4 hour boot pack in waist deep snow leapfrogging from large tree to large tree for safety. We continued doing this all the way down the slope and into the point where all of the chutes come together at the bottom. This part of the walk was full of terrain traps and difficult walking due to the creek. Several times I fell through the snow and my feet got soaked. By this point it was dark. We never had a chance to let anyone know of our situation because neither of our phones held a charge with the cold temps. We reached the car, charged a phone and were able to let my wife know that we were safe. She had contacted a friend who had called the Silverton Sheriff but was able to call him off before a search started. In all we were very cold and my partner was bruised but the injuries were minimal given the size of the slide and distance that he rode before stopping.