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Close call at WA Pass 1-5-14
- Good2Go
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Pics: picasaweb.google.com/1085432858599684297...HtwE&feat=directlink
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- aaron_wright
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- Good2Go
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- ron j
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Don't know the area so the pics don't help answer my questions...
I was wondering about the approximate aspect and elevation of the crown.
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- Good2Go
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- glenn_b
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- T. Eastman
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... glad things worked out.
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- SKIER-X
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Lower down, there is a rain/ warming crust transition below the powder that we could feel.
Up high, Looks like some cross wind loading far skiers left below the walls. Could not see the cornice. Tested a steep wind slab over a hard crust and was suprised it did not move, but who knows really it was such a small, small slab.
If I can be of futher assistance,let me know.]
Above was the intel. FSG posted to you. It's from exactly where you skied ! We observed many crown releases on wind affected N,NE,NW aspects below ridgelines as well as sun affected rollerballs and wet slides from 1/3 through 1/4. Probably a good idea to ski one at a time with a lookout or leap frog from safe area to safe area. I took a ride in that same spot , similar conditions a few years back . Glad your Good To Go. X
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- JohnBox
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The second test failed at 8 inches on the second or third from the wrist. If your slide stepped down maybe that is the layer. I'm pretty new at this and we didn't stick around much longer to do any more digging. I'm glad to hear you were alright.
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- Good2Go
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You could be right about the layer. We dug around a bit at the beginning of the weekend, and more thoroughly the weekend before. We were aware of several faceted layers in the snowpack, but we couldn't trigger a reaction with skis anywhere no matter how much we tried (e.g., via ski cuts or at switchbacks while skinning, etc.). That's what made the substantial propagation so surprising. Unstable layers at depth are pretty difficult to predict. Can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I wouldn't want to be a heli guide up there right now.On Dec 26th I was within a 1/4 mile of that slope, perhaps even directly below it. We saw where it looked like a previous group had been a few days prior. It looked like they had triggered a collapse with a one crack forming in the snow. We decided to dig and did one ECT on a ~25 degree slope that did not move at all. I then cut the ECT apart and did a couple of compression tests and had one failure ~8 inches down that went on the second tap from the elbow.
The second test failed at 8 inches on the second or third from the wrist. If your slide stepped down maybe that is the layer. I'm pretty new at this and we didn't stick around much longer to do any more digging. I'm glad to hear you were alright.
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- TN
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On Sunday we "met" two new valley transplant couples. I guess continued mentoring is still "on our plate".
Perhaps this thread should have been in the Weak Layers section and I'll try to post something similar there. The most important point here is the most likely aspect to go wrong: When a skin track is in "threatened terrain" where a skier triggered slide is reasonably possible, AND "line-of-sight" communication is absent. In a remote location, a single team could do this MAYBE. In popular areas it should be a no-go or a "set a new uptrack" condition. If you cannot see if anyone is following your exposed uptrack how can you ski onto the slope that threatens them? If you are following a track into threatened terrain how can you risk having the track-setter bury you?
Hopefully we can get this through to the less aware folks. We have a lot of terrain that fits here in the N Cascades!
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- flowing alpy
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b
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- all mtn
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- Jim Oker
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- ND
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I wonder if there was a rock near the trigger point, can't quite tell from the photo. Perhaps there was a thick hoar layer surrounding a rock, it could easily propagate from there even thought pits weren't very reactive.
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- Jim Oker
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- all mtn
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- mattfirth
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This year reminds me of that year. Watch out.
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- SKIER-X
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