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This photo is from this morning, courtesy of Schweitzer Ski Patrol. Lakeside Chutes in the Outback Bowl triggered to the 12/16 layer, slid to the lake taking out trees and pushing the ice out of the lake, approximately 12' crown.
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Wow, nice result!
Shot taken from another angle. Note the explosives still in use and the smaller releases nearer the bottom of the photo. Shit's real up there right now.
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Couple things make go hmm
1. Guests on the slopes so close to active AC
2. Patrol standing beyond the convexity at which the other slopes broke
Maybe just the angle of the pic...
That guy closest to the explosive looks like he’s not in the best spot....
That’s an intense pic
Where that guy is is an area that usually doesn't slide and doesn't go big when it does. Where it goes big is where it went big. But that's, by far, the biggest I've ever seen (albeit in a photo...I'm not there). I'm going up tonight so will have a look tomorrow. But yeah, I'd want to be belayed. Maybe he is, just can't tell in this pic.Quote:
Originally Posted by t-the-east
As for the people being close to avy control, that's pretty common. From where they're at, on top of a ridge line, they can't even see the patrollers or the work being done but the bombs are loud enough to catch you attention when you're there.
holy shit!
bigly
I'd still prefer to be the second patroller and roped up. You can visualize the crown going between them. An unusual season, makes for unusual avalanches. Sad to see all that nice snow down the ravine.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldMember
Guy was caught in a much smaller slide yesterday at Park Silly (OB). I was skiing Pow Parks on the BCC side and knew nothing of it until I saw the report. https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanches/35955 (sorry, thread drift). Maybe I should just hang up the Dynafit rig and go back to leather boot tele (only been skiing low angle trees this season)?
Shot this from the bottom of the lake earlier today. Definitely the largest I have seen this section rip. That tree is not supposed to be in the center of the lake.
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I was at Schweitzer today with mooseknuckles. Gnarly inbounds slide. Guessing a 9' crown. Ran down just past the lake.
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x2. That's a massive crown, hard to say where it might run to.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ermine
I'm guessing he may be belayed and he tossed the charge on a line and needed to see where it landed so he could move it to a spot that is a known weakness.Quote:
Originally Posted by t-the-east
^^ Jesus, from that photo the crown looks to between 8-10 feet thick. I wonder how many have skied over that exact trigger zone this season before the control work triggered it.
A LOT, me included. Yep, scary shit.Quote:
Originally Posted by S_jenks
I wonder the same, though it wasn't a problem till the recent rapid loading.Quote:
Originally Posted by S_jenks
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Love the vibe at the resort when huge slides like those are in everyone's face! Mama is still in control...
That wasn't the only slide either. R1 slid yesterday.
That whole area was closed yesterday and loaded up big time.
I wasn't beeping today and probably should have. Skied the bowl just right of some debris and pinned it through a fresh section that looked like it might go. Mooseknuckles said he had some movement on his way through.
A ton of people since it's a main zone that gets the shit skied out of it. Like I pointed to, it was closed yesterday and had a ton of wind loading of heavy snow. That 12/16 layer couldn't take it.Quote:
Originally Posted by S_jenks
Damn that's a gnarly looking crown. Glad it didn't slide when people were skiing it!
Judging by the color of the smoke in that detonation and the size, that was most likely an sled bomb with a bunch of ANFO and was rope lowered to where it went off.
The area where it slid big looks like a stubborn angle (33-35 Deg) with a bunch of steeper convex rolls lower in the path. Good on the Schweitzer Patrol for recognizing the increasing problem and keeping it shut.
Yup. A couple things to note for those not familiar with the area: the access to the middle of the bowl is rarely open, so the bowl sees a lot of traffic from the edges but not at the start zone.Quote:
Originally Posted by Not bunion
Also, it's not obvious in the pics but there is a terrain feature at looker's left to break up the slab. If you look closely you can see the left end of the crown breaking downhill near that. The pic makes it look flat from there to where the patrollers are standing, but as with the ridge shape, it's deceptive--it would actually be pretty hard for a crack to propogate much further left. So they have the advantage of having a fairly well defined zone there, assuming there isn't a knife-wielding Minnesotan ducking the ropes or traversing right under them when the middle gates are closed.
The day before this slid the access at either edge of the bowl was open, despite closures to looker's right (north) of the chair in mooseknuckle's pic and all of the southern peak following the R1 burial. Wednesday had 12" of heavy new and 7" more during the day. I came down both entry points and saw no signs of instability maybe 20 hours before it slid. Of course, the weak layer was many feet below, but the slope to either side is remarkably more stable than the middle, which usually gets extra wind load in addition to the tricky angles.
Curious what this does to any plans to replace chair 6.
^^^ this is what I find most fascinating about avalanches. The when and why are unpredictable while the what is so often a repeat of the all the previous slides.
By that I mean (and we are talking about old snow) that where a slide will initiate and how wide it will break and where is rides up become routine if you are around long enough to observe, year after year.
One path I have been able to watch over the years almost every year will slide early and low, the as it fills in it will fail again mid-level and depending on skier compaction will often fill in and fail a 3rd time at the upper level starting zone. Before there was lift access I observed it failing from near the top in early March as a deep slab full depth full width release that was incredible to view in the aftermath. And once regular control measures and skier traffic had begun it now comes out piecemeal. Except for this year. So Far.
Yeah, that's really interesting stuff. The skier compaction piece has been a topic of some discussion in this zone, too, because all the other factors make it pretty unusual to get significant skier compaction up top. Just speculation as to whether it would matter much, but in my most wishful moments I'd like to think this spot could slide a little less if a lift upgrade brought the bowl more traffic. I may just be telling myself that to keep warm when chair 6 stops in a windy spot, though.