Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
Our tour up Elk Creek revealed soft crusts on Southern aspects and surface (~2-3mm) on shadier E and SE aspects below 10k elevation. Moderate winds persisted along ridges below treeline. All three of us had read the avy report for the day and had been following it all season, and all three of us have level II avalanche certifications or higher. Two of the party were equipped with float packs. Our test slope featured a treeless runout, and a steep entrance rollover followed quickly by slopes at or below 30* in steepness. The first skier was to ski cut the top and then continue to the bottom of the run (about 500 feet of vertical drop). We all had radios and planned to communicate while we were skiing, as well as planning our exits if something slid. Skier one executed a short ski cut on the steep rollover and continued for another few turns when the slope crack just above him to his right. He was swept off his feet in the fast moving avalanche and was lost from sight for about 100 feet. Eventually we saw his airbag balloon riding above the avalanche, and it stayed on top until the avalanche came to a stop, well into lower-angled terrain. He was buried up to his stomach sitting upright, and was not injured. The only gear lost was a pole. Skier 2 descended the the debris and then lower-angled slopes to aid in digging skier 1 out. Skier 3 quickly inspected the crown: the slide occurred at the interface between storm snow and our older, faceted, near-structureless snowpack from our long January-February dry spell. The storm snow had settled to 2-3 feet deep in this area, the top quarter of which was Fist hard, moving to 4F hardness for the rest of the slab until the bottom 6ish inches of 1F density. The weak snow below seemed to be 2-3mm facets. We lucked out in many ways, but we came prepared with knowledge and equipment, conditions reports, and the mentality that we were going to ski this slope as if it would slide, choosing our exit points and ski tactics carefully (though note that our intention was not to make it avalanche, and this slope didn't seem particularly dangerous in our initial estimations. Of course, seeing how widely this avalanche propagated, and how far and fast it ran, we clearly underestimated this slope).
Avalanche
- Size
- D2 R2
- Type
- SS
- Count
- 2
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 10100 ft
R2-D1.5-AS-S/O ENE aspect below treeline ~10,100 ft elevation, slop angle estimated to be upper 30*; crown about 2 feet thick and propagated about 300 feet wide, and avalanche ran ~400 feet; partial burial of 1 skier