Avalanche

Avalanche: Porter Fork

Nelson AbantoSalt Lake
View on map

Avalanche

Porter Fork to the sadlle west of Raymond

Started out snowing but began to clear up. Almost no wind and temps around 30.

Almost every ski cut I did produced results I skied one north facing shot which broke 50-70 feet about 12" deep and ran about 200 ft. I then moved to west facing thinking it would be safer. On my last run I skied a fairly wide open shot maybe 35 degrees. It broke at least 300 feet 12-18 inches deep and ran 250 to 300 vertical. I tried to bail out right away but was caught close to the trees and rode maybe 50 vertical . I was never close to completely buried and got out myself but lost both poles. The avalanche was a soft slab that ran on surface hoare which was on top of a hard bed surface.

I had the feeling that anything approaching 35 degrees that was even the slightest bit in the open would go.

I think you guys were right about "considerable" but it was like almost everything I was doing was producing some kind of result.