Chute

Party of four collected at the base of open book at the base of the ravine and split into two groups of two, party A went to Chute and party B went toward Chute, North variation. Party A set a kick-turn skin track in the sheltered zone climbers right of the Chute run-out/slide path. At the rock wall, the lead skier tried to quickly traverse the slide path to the sheltered zone beneath the buttress that lies between Chute and Chute South. While traversing a loose snow avalanche (natural trigger) scoured the start zone and deposited debris in the runout zone above Chute, went through the funnel (entrainment increased volume and momentum) and hit the lead skier, carrying him approximately 30 meters downslope. The second skier in party A was at the edge of the slide and had his ski taken by the slide. The lead skier in party B observed the slide, as it exited the Chute funnel, propagated laterally to the north 100 feet all the way to the base of the Tuckerman icefall. In aftermath of the slide, the runout zone (zone below the snowfield roll-over at ~5100' but above the choke at ~4700', roughly two football fields in area) had been scoured to the base rock with observable crown depth >30 cm. The avalanche debris in our one observation (wading through looking for a lost ski) was >3 m deep. There were no injuries or gear damage incurred by the party of four. For context on the group, these four individuals have spent extensive time skiing, climbing, guiding, and volunteering on rescues in this terrain. Part of the purpose of this excursion was to assess conditions and collect observations to share (but, you know, we also wanted to ski). We observed significant and active snow transport from wind. Cracking and collapsing were observed in small and large convex structures in the terrain.

Chute

Quick report

Weather

Snowpack