Sled Remote - Partial Burial
Quick report403johns · Mar 15, 2025 · West Purcell
Quick report
- Riding Quality
- ok
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSlab
Todays travel philosophy for our group of 2 was making conservative choices in low angle terrain. We were only exposing ourselves to features that had already run during the previous storm cycle or which were small and isolated enough to not pose a threat.
Weather
- Avg Temp
- -5
- Wind Speed
- windSpeedCalm
- Blowing Snow
- none
- Sky Condition
- brokenClouds
- Snowfall Rate
- 1
- New Snow24 Hours
- 15
- Storm Snow Amount
- 50
- Temperature Trend
- rising
- Precipitation Type
- none
Clement weather with periods of sun and temperatures just below freezing.
Snowpack
- Obs Type
- summary
- Site Aspect
- E, N, S
- Site Elevation
- 2200
- Foot Penetration
- 100
- Sled Penetration
- 20
- Site Elevation Band
- alp, tln
- Surface Conditions
- newSnow
The upper snowpack has an approximately 60cm deep F to 1F slab above a very weak and upside down feeling mid pack. This slab is supportive to sled traffic but becomes obvious when attempting to travel on foot. Recent avalanche activity aside there were no other obvious signs of instability.
Avalanche
- Run Length
- 100
- Slab Width
- 100
- Trigger Type
- snowmobile
- Wind Exposure
- leeSlope
- Avalanche Size
- 2
- Slab Thickness
- 60
- Trigger Sub Type
- remote
- Start Zone Aspect
- E
- Trigger Distance
- 110
- Vegetation Cover
- openSlope
- Start Zone Incline
- 38
- Avalanche Character
- persistentSlab
- Number Of Avalanches
- 1
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2200
- Runout Zone Elevation
- 2100
- Avalanche Observation
- 12hrsAgo
- Weak Layer Crystal Type
- facets
- Start Zone Elevation Band
- alp
- Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
- 2025-03-15T20:30:00.000Z
Uncertain on weak layer burial date or whether or not a crust was present due to inaccessibility of the start zone. Presumably failed on the January drought layer.
Incident
- Group Size
- 7
- Terrain Trap
- noTrap
- Group Activity
- snowmobiling
- Number Injured
- 0
- Number Involved
- 2
- Number Caught Only
- 1
- Number Fully Buried
- 0
- Snow Depth Trigger Point
- average
- Number Partly Buried Able Breathing
- 1
- Number Partly Buried Impaired Breathing
- 0
A group of 6 sledders (one was in the meadows below) briefly grouped up below a steep feature in an area with a handful of existing tracks. A size 2 avalanche was remotely triggered from a flat bench about 110m away from the crown line. A roughly 60cm deep slab propagated about 100m and ran about 100m burying one sledder up to his seat. No rescue was required and the machine was dug out with no damage.