Jawbone Canyon

My partner and I went out to Jawbone Canyon and rode several laps down the lookers right ridge of the canyon. We did not ride in the canyon itself due to concerns about the persistent weak layer and the greater risk of being in a terrain trap. We were in the process of completing our third lap when one of the skiers triggered a D2 avalanche. The skier who triggered the avalanche was caught a short distance but self arrested on a tree. Fortunately, the skier was not buried and only suffered minor injuries. The second skier was out of the slide path behind a tree. During our outing, the only sign of instability was a whumpf we experienced in a different zone on a slightly different aspect prior to our third lap ascent. There were no other cracks, slides, or other obvious signs of instability. During our ascent I had tried to trigger a slide on test slopes and had no signs of reactivity. The whumpf we experienced occurred on flat terrain in the trees when we stepped out of our skis to transition for our third lap. When we stepped out we postholed about 2-3ft to our waist. My partner and I reflected on the various heuristic traps and decision making errors we fell prey to during our tour. We skied over the slope where the slide occurred several times without any prior red flags which in the moment we did recognize was a common heuristic trap encountered with persistent weak layers. Nevertheless, we decided to continue because we felt the most concerning slope for an avalanche showed signs of already having slid recently. We also had felt that over the past several days we had skied many similar slopes without any signs of instability but in hindsight those tended to be in areas of deeper snowpack.

Jawbone Canyon

Quick report

Avalanche