Avalanche: Eeeny Meeny Miny Moe

shallow snow on ridge. steep north aspect. had skied Bonkers and Big West 2x with no instability. saw no natural activity. little to no group discussion of avy situation for "exit" run after big, beautiful day.

Note: The content here was written by UAC forecaster, Bruce Tremper, who is investigating the accident further.

A group of four skiers spent the day in Broad's Fork skiing several slopes including Bonkers and a couple runs on Great West. On their last run, they skied off the NE side of Peak 9924, which is on the ridge between Broads Fork and Mill B South. It is a 2,000 vertical foot run. The upper half is a 35-degree slope through gladed trees and looks like a deceptively easy descent but the lower half rolls over into a series of cliffs the bottom of the Mill B South drainage.

Two skiers descended partway and waited in some trees. The third skier started down while the fourth skier waited on the ridge. The third skier got about 4 turns into the run when he triggered a large, hard-slab avalanche about 3-4 feet deep and quite wide. He yelled "Avalanche!" to the others below and one was able to grab a tree and the other scrambled out of the way. The third skier was going to deploy his avalanche airbag pack but he impacted a tree before he could pull the trigger. The tree stopped him and the debris washed over him and buried him with his head sticking out. He injured his knee in the impact with the tree. The fourth skier on top came down with his beacon on receive and found the third skier and helped him get out. Luckily no one took the full ride to the bottom because it would most likely be un-survivable because it descended through gladed trees and over several cliffs on its 2,000 vertical foot path.

The injured skier hobbled down, sliding on his rear much of the way. He found one of his skis about halfway down. It was difficult negotiating the various cliff bands. At the bottom, he was able to ski out on one ski. He was obviously very lucky.