Avalanche: Cinder Chutes

As we finished the day skiing off the PC ridgeline from the Canyons, I triggered an avalanche skiing back into the resort. We'd skied two laps on Corn Bowl and felt confident on our route back to the resort, having skied it several times in what felt like increasingly stable conditions over the past several days.

On this run I skied a slightly steeper section of clean looking snow (no wheels or debris) down toward the cat road leading back to Redpine. On the first turn I saw debris start dropping from the ridge, but not in an alarming way. On the second turn I saw more snow moving and then the slope fractured remotely about 40' downslope from me. The fracture instantly reached 100' wide and the slope between it and me broke apart into heavy chunks. Simultaneously the slab fractured 40' above me with an 18" crown and that snow came down on me, knocking me over. It was clear the entire slope was moving toward some nasty trees very quickly. I pulled my airbag as the force of the upper snow hit my legs and knocked me over. The slide carried me approximately 125' and I stopped just short of a grove of aspens, shaken and without some gear but otherwise fine.

We'd skied this slope many times this week and I think given the warm temps and general relaxed spring mood I took my mind off the slope angle for a moment and that was all it took.