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Topic: bc 8 (Read 737 times)
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freeskiguy
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Posts: 171
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bc 8
« on: 12/03/11, 02:05 PM » |
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I’ve triggered two slides that were not the result of mitigated ski cuts and both were the result of a momentary lapse of reason, lapse of short term memory, stupidity or all three. Both slides were the result of known instabilities. The second slide was minor but did have a lesson so I’ll save that one.
The first slide I triggered about eight years ago. It was the beginning of March, and Hwy 20 was being cleared of winter snow and was not available to use for ski access. My ski partner and I decided to ski lines near the Summer trail to Goat Peak after a storm had dumped 8’’ to 10’’ of new snow. We knew even before we left the house that we would encounter instability.
We started climbing a treed west facing aspect, and it was apparent that the new snow had not bonded to the wind/M-F crust. When skinning up, our skis were in contact with the crust just as if there was no new snow on top. We continued to climb through the low angle trees until we needed to wrap around to a more northerly aspect. Here the bonds were better and when skiing down we could not get the snow to move with our numerous ski cuts
After dropping about 800 vertical of north stuff, we wrapped back to the west and skied trees. The tree lines were excellent, until my line dumped me out into a clear cut (logged) steep gully line. I remember thinking that I was fortunate to have this beautiful line in front of me as I left the trees and over a roll that entered the gully.
This gully is a classic example of a terrain trap. It has a roll entry into a funnel shaped gully. After one turn to the left over the roll, my next thought was simply ‘’avalanche terrain”. On my turn to the right, I was starting to exit the gully when I saw a crack shoot around me on the gully flank wall and down to my right.
The turn became a traverse out of there and I experienced a familiar double motion. The slab was taking me down hill at the same time I was heading to the right. (This motion is the same motion I experienced when wind surf bumming the Columbia River Gorge during high water flow. You are heading toward the shore on an upriver broad reach( off the wind course), but the 8 knot current is taking you down river, making it appear that the shore is moving away from the point you are heading to).
I was able to ski off of the slab before it broke up. I looked over my shoulder and when the slab broke up, it accelerated like a bat out hell, which was were I was heading if I hadn’t gotten of the slab.
It only ran about 300 vertical feet, but its path was right over the now uncovered mess of logged tree stumps. Also there was a good pile of snow because, even though the crown was only 10 inches, the sides of the gully contributed to its mass.
Lessons learned; I realized that I had completely forgotten about the instabilities on the west aspect that we had encountered on the way up. Stop at a safe spot and re-evaluate when the conditions of snow or terrain changes. Cut all rolls. Ski on the most stable ski gear you can. If I had been on my tele-mark skis, I would have been knocked down for sure (I‘m more skilled on AT gear). Take up high wind, windsurfing. When I was still on the slab and experiencing the disorienting duel motion of my ski traverse and the slab, I already had the skills to deal with it.
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« Last Edit: 12/03/11, 02:10 PM by freeskiguy »
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