AVALANCHE OBSERVATION East of Mt. Olsen Drainage: |
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Submission Info Wednesday, February 15, 2017 - 2:30pm |
Red Flags:
Recent loading by new snow, wind, or rain
Obvious avalanche path
Terrain Trap
Avalanche Type:
Dry
Slab
Slope:
38degrees
Trigger type:
Skier
Crown Height:
Less than 1 ft
Aspect:
East
Weak Layer:
Unknown
Avalanche Width:
40ft.
Terrain:
Near Treeline
Elevation:
10 300ft.
Bed Surface:
Old Snow
Avalanche Length:
100ft.
Blowing Snow:
Yes
Cloud Cover:
50% of the sky covered by clouds
Wind Speed:
Light
Air temperature trend:
Cooling
Wind Direction:
Southwest
More detailed information about the weather:
Warm days, snow becoming heavy and wet on sunny slopes, creating crust in the afternoon and cold nights. moderate winds yesterday
Number of People Caught:
1
virginia lakes
38° 2' 56.5512" N, 119° 13' 47.3412" W
See map: Google Maps
MY WAKE UP CALL:
Today I travelled up the low angle, eastern most, north facing flank of the Mt. Olsen Ridge. I noticed recent wind loading and cornices on the steeper East bowl to my left. The snow was good the whole way up on north facing and I told myself to stay away from the East bowl because the snow looked funky. After gaining the ridge, despite my own warning, I still chose to ski the steeper, East slope! It just looked so much cooler!! I had been skiing in the area for the previouse 3 days and reports from others all pointed to safe conditions, so I wasn't even really thinking about avalanche, I was just looking for the best snow! I realized quickly that the snow on the Eastern aspect was not as good, a melt freeze crust had formed in the overcast afternoon on top of 8-10 inches of wind loaded snow. Remembering the wind buffed, textured, butter pow on the more Northern slope I started traversing back to my uptrack. As a crossed a convex area, I thougt I should just go fast, and thought maybe it would break below me and be just a managable slough. That is when I got the weird feeling that I was moving, even though when I looked at my feet I was standing still! I looked up the hill and it finally registered that I was sliding down the hill on a huge slab that had silently broken above me!! So I quickly chose to point my skis left to try to escape as the slab started breaking apart around my feet. But, I was in the middle of the rapidly accelerating debris and my skis were swep out from under me. I knew I couldn't recover before I was swept in to the larger trees below, so I pointed my body towards a small tree thinking I could grab on. I took the tree somewhere near my knee and shin, beacause that's what hurts, and then held on till the snow stopped moving around me. I watched my poor dog get swept another 40 ft. downhill, amazingly missing any large obstacles. I did not stick around to study the slope, but the crown was only about 8-10 Inches on rain crust, from last week's high elevation rain. I was amazed at how quickly the small slab gained momentum and material, and how helpless I felt sliding toward the stand of trees, the terrain trap.
That should not have happened. I am emabarrassed about my level of complacancy. I didn't even see it coming! I was skiing alone, I should respected the avalanche terrain, I should have heeded the red flags, recognized that what might have been safe yesterday might not be safe today. I also have a new appreciation for even the smallest slides. The Sierra is a labyrinth of small avalanche zones surrounded by terrain traps. I and my dog are fortunate to be only tired and bruised.
Thanks for reading. Be safe out there!!