Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 5 m
- Trigger Type
- Snowboarder
- Start Zone Aspect
- Northwest
- Start Zone Elevation
- 3109 m
In my travels the past couple weeks I have noticed large cornices, some seriously impressive root erosion, and skin tracks that were spooky close to the edge- some even completely over obviously overhung sections.
Despite my warning about being too close to the edge, my partner walked over a section that was not obviously overhanging. As he walked past, a ~15ft long chunk of cornice broke free, taking some footprints with it. Fortunately, he was still on the ridge. The cornice took some snow down with it. Not sure if it was a wind slab, or just loose dry snow. Terrain features prevented any sort of propagation if it was a slab , and it was confined to the gully.
Despite the debris looking like they weren't big enough to completely bury a person, the consequences of falling off with the cornice were still quite high. A 15-20 foot fall onto exposed rocks and the subsequent tumble down a couple hundred feet is certainly enough to cause season-ending injuries at least. Even though this was in an easily accessible and heavily traveled area, rescue would have been quite difficult and time consuming and would expose others to risk unnecessarily- our party would not have been able to safely extricate a patient without outside assistance.
Attached photo is looking down the gully where the cornice fell. The pole is marking a left footprint... the matching right footprint is on top of one of the blocks a couple hundred feet down the slope.
Please, stay back from the edge! Even farther than you think. Try to keep vegetation and/or rocks between you and the ridge line so you are certain that you are walking on a ridge, and not on an overhang. This cornice surprised an experienced backcountry traveler, and it could surprise you too.