Burstall Pass

Avalanche

jake.finnan · Dec 19, 2020 · Spray - KLakes

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Quick report

Weather
windy
Riding Quality
Good
Snow Conditions
deepPowder, windAffected, powder
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionSound

Found lots of wind! About double of what the Burstall pass WX station says. Fresh snow, 5cm at the parking lot increasing to 20cm by the pass. Deep trail-breaking near treeline, boot pen about 30cm. Lots of wind-loading all day, see avalanche tab. -4c to start, -9c at the pass, -6c back at the car. Windy all day with broken clouds, trace amounts of new snow. Ski quality in sheltered areas was good. Had some cracking in the storm snow at treeline and below.

Avalanche

Triggered a deep windslab on a convex roll at treeline/alpine. I rode on top of it for 10m. Admittedly I thought because the slope was small and supported that it wouldn't slide but clearly it didn't care what I had to say! Crown was 160cm deep, about 50m wide. Crown to toe approx 20m. Thankfully a low consequence slope because this was a deep one. A wake up call for how sketchy things can be in the immediate lee with fresh wind loading. Was feeling pretty stupid for triggering it but then watched a pair snowshoers ascend the same slope directly beside the avalanche. I yelled 3 times for them to turn around, they gave me a wave and proceeded.... Stay safe out there.

Incident

Comment
<p>See avalanche tab. 1 skier caught but stayed on surface, only ran for ~15m despite being wide and deep - small slope. 40 degrees for approx 5m then concave - supported slope. Triggered at convexity.</p>