Big Cornices
Avalanchedafomley · Jan 30, 2021 · Kootenay
Quick report
- Weather
- warm
- Ride Type
- alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes, sunnySlopes
- Riding Quality
- good
- Snow Conditions
- powder
Just wanted to give people a heads up about cornices. We've been up on some ridges in Kootenay Park over the past month and had 2 cornices break off unexpectedly while walking near ridgetop. The most recent was a very close call. We had been walking along a ridge well away from the "edge," we figure around 5m away. The cornice cracked from end to end on a mini bowl, the fracture line was right between my legs, I was close to the middle of the mini bowl, another member of our party was at the end behind me. We were lucky enough, and had a quick enough reaction to jump to safety. The cornice was massive! Bus sized! It triggered the slope below, which went pretty close to full path. The terrain below was very serious and a fall there would have been complicated. Just a warning that cornices are getting big and may be ready to fall, keep an eye above you and give them wider berth than you think you need. If you're travelling below one, they have the mass to trigger deep layers and go big.
Weather
- Sky Condition
- fewClouds
Inversion, snow on solar aspects were getting bit moist. Ridgetop was below freezing.
Snowpack
- Depth
- 140
- Obs Type
- summary
- Site Aspect
- NE
- Site Elevation
- 2450
- Ski Penetration
- 15
- Foot Penetration
- 25
- Cracking Observed
- 1
- Site Elevation Band
- alp
- Surface Conditions
- newSnow
Alpine snow depths varied between 90 and 240 near ridgetop on the windward side. Cornices were between 1.5m - and massive!
Avalanche
- Run Length
- 400
- Trigger Type
- skier
- Wind Exposure
- leeSlope
- Avalanche Size
- 2.5
- Trigger Sub Type
- accidental
- Start Zone Aspect
- NE
- Vegetation Cover
- openSlope
- Avalanche Character
- corniceWithSlab
- Number Of Avalanches
- 1
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2450
- Runout Zone Elevation
- 2050
- Start Zone Elevation Band
- alp
- Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
- 2021-01-30T13:02:00
Cornice triggered, close to full path, hard to see how deep as we did not want to get close to the edge. Extreme terrain.