Avalanche: Big Springs

One caught and carried, none buried, none injured.

We skinned up from Big Springs Park Trailhead reaching the top of ridge at 12:45. We started down and cut skier's left below the NW sub-ridge for 1 pitch and regrouped. We decided to cut hard left again and regained the NW ridge with signs of wind loading. The first skier cut left with no issues, and continued 800ft down the pitch. 2nd skier started down just left of first tracks and the wind-slab broke within the first 50ft, carrying skier 50ft down through small brush before escaping to the right. Caught skier quickly lost a ski but was able to avoid most bushes by swimming as snow from the crown passed. Avalanche ran approximately 500ft, stopping well above 1st skier. Lost ski traveled down approximately 700ft, but luckily stopped where 1st skier could see it.

Looking back, several errors contributed to this close call. Winds were heavy on the ascent, nearly taking off a baseball hat. We knew wind-slabs were forming and ski-cut across several potential start zones, but on last run 2nd skier entered above bushes without clear exit plan in case of trouble. We also could have traversed lower below ridge or skied line further right to better avoid this hazard.