Avy on Tumalo, Central Oregon - Partial Burial. Info and backstory...
from the COAA website...
Avalanches DO happen in Central Oregon. Skiers and snowboarders are at risk whenever they enter the backcountry, and with more and more people in the BC, the risks are not just limited to just you and your group. We suppose it wasn’t long before something like the following incident would occur, and we are bringing it to our community’s attention because we believe that there are important lessons to be learned and talked about.
This last Saturday, an avalanche was triggered on Tumalo Mountain by a single skier cutting between the two cliff bands. COAA received the following avy observation on its website that Saturday afternoon…
“We observed a slide on Tumalo at approximately 10:00 a.m. on January 30. It was triggered by a skier on the run between the two cliff bands, which has been a repeat offender, especially this year. Crown height was 8-12 inches and it was approximately 60-80 feet wide and ran for approximately 600 vertical feet. It got enough momentum to flow past the terrain trap at the bottom and up onto the bench (where the other skiers in the triggering skier's party were standing). It appears to have run on a layer within the new storm snow and not on the rain crust from Thursday. Winds were moderate (for us) at 30-40 mph with higher gusts coming from the southwest.
The amount of wind transport was very high. It was snowing lightly. Cornice growth was significant.
Later in the day, snowmobilers triggered a smaller slide on Tumalo to the east of the initial slide.”
COAA received the following email on Sunday, January 31. While the bulk of the text came from the first email, parts of this do come from follow-up emails with this party:
“We were the party of three that were hit by the runout on top of the bench. The skier who triggered the slide was not part of our party but was alone. Our party had skied down one at a time, skier's right of the cliff band. We were only at the bottom a few minutes and starting to put our skins on to skin out when the tail end of the runout hit us. The three of us were buried about up to our waists and all of our gear was 1-2 feet under snow. My skis and pack were tossed from several feet in front of me to about 20 feet behind me. We had to dig for 5 minutes to find one pair of skins.
We dug our stuff out and noticed the other skier 100 yards from us who had triggered the slide. He did not once acknowledge us or see if we needed help. I walked over to him to ask him if he realized what he had done. He said "Yeah I know. I cut that on purpose." He headed up the slope and I was unable to catch up to him to ask him if he had been aware that we were down below when he decided to, as he claimed, "cut the slide on purpose." We also could not find him in the parking lot to question him about it.
We were pretty upset with his lack of awareness of our presence directly below his chosen ski line, especially since the rock face is known to slide and conditions were not the best. We don't know who this person is or why he decided to make that decision, but I think it is worth reporting to you guys since Tumalo is seeing more and more traffic and people need to be aware of the danger and understand the consequences of their decisions on the snow.
After everything happened, we as a group stopped and thought about what we could have done differently to avoid this. We all chose the line skier's right of the rock face because the pitch is lower angle and there is a quick escape route to the right to even more mellow terrain. We were all very aware that the spot below that rock outcropping tends to slide.
Our meeting point was at the bottom of the shelf just above the terrain trap. We had all three skied that line before and chose that meeting spot because it was out of the way of any slide we could have triggered form our line. This is a common meeting spot that people use and we have used in the past, but we learned that though it may be a safe spot given different snow conditions, on that day it was not. Because of the high accumulation of very light powder the runout reached further than is typical in that area.
Looking back we decided that the one factor we did not consider was other skiers outside of our party. If we would have been just a few feet to the left or right from where we stopped we would have avoided the tail end of the runout all together. We came to the conclusion that given the high usage and other skiers in the area we should have chosen to ski further out and to the northeast away from the bowl and accepted the longer hike out. We should have anticipated other skiers coming down above us and we should not have trusted other skiers outside of our party to wait until we had fully hiked out.”
First and foremost, COAA is relieved that this avalanche did not cause any bodily harm to the three skiers who were caught in the runout.
But stepping back, COAA believes that this event offers several points of discussion that perhaps the Central Oregon backcountry community might consider:
1) With 2 partial burial events on Tumalo in the last 2 years, we believe that it is safe to finally dispel the notion that “Tumalo doesn’t slide”. Mountain systems are complex, ever-changing environments. Things happen. Tumalo slides.
2) We cannot forget that there are never any guarantees in the backcountry, and the need for a heightened sense of alertness and risk management becomes even more poignant in this type of situation. Both the skier above and the skiers below might have benefitted from considering alternate options in their decision making. The human factor is one of the most challenging to control.
3) With skiers and gear buried up to their waists, it’s a very good reminder that the physical consequences of avalanches can impact you in many aspects. Consider what would have happened if, for example, one of the party below was fully buried and all the backpacks/shovels/probes were also fully buried, having been taken off to prep for the uphill.
We appreciate the time and energy the observer and the involved party made to report this incident to us, and their willingness to let us publish it to the general public. COAA’s mission has always been to promote avalanche awareness and safety to the Central Oregon user base. We hope this incident stimulates a constructive discussion about safe backcountry travel within the Central Oregon backcountry community.
http://www.coavalanche.org/sites/def...aloslide_1.jpg
