Utah Avalanche photo-of-the-day

[Keoni]

Slope angle is only 1 factor and if it's steep enough for you to ride on, it's steep enough to slide btw.

[truth]

QUESTION: On the original photo, and if there was no slide, where would be a good but safe spot to dig a pit?

I find picking a good spot for a pit challenging. Any other thoughts on this topic?

Great question. It would seem that lookers right of the line there is a psuedo shoulder in the ridge where a small tree grows a few feet below the lip. A few hops on the top of that slope, a ski cut perhaps and then a pit just below the tree might have worked. It's open and exposed but you mitigate the risk by limiting the snow above you and perhaps using the tree as an anchor for a rope.

The thing that freaks me out is that the Grizzly Gulch slide seems to have been the result of an unintentional ski cut while the party traversed through areas they were not comfrotable skiing. The snow ripped out 80 feet above them, offering little chance to escape.

I'm no expert and what happens in the BC is far dif than second guessing from pics in the intraweb. There is no way I'd ski the line that guy is putting down in that pic...no way.

[Buzzworthy]

The thing that freaks me out is that the Grizzly Gulch slide seems to have been the result of an unintentional ski cut while the party traversed through areas they were not comfrotable skiing. The snow ripped out 80 feet above them, offering little chance to escape.

Where are you seeing the info on the activity of this slide? I know there is talk about a maggot assumed to be involved, but I would prefer not to use the name of said person.

I am curious as to the events that led to this sad day. Maybe in time the story will come as a learning tool for the rest of us, like Duph did and I thought that was very informative.

[truth]

Buzz....Avy Center report

[davidof]

You guys talk about avalanch safety all the time, but I have seen very little detailed info discused about what to look for and what exactly to avoid. Maybe you could share some of your expertise with an eastern idiot that will someday need to know this stuff.

check out this thread:-

http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=386

[Buzzworthy]

Buzz....Avy Center report

Hard read.

[Trackhead]

I think statistics show 1/3 of all avy deaths are from trauma. Most folks after a five minute burial have rebreathed enough of their own CO2 from the ice mask that forms around your face to be unconscious and near death.

Please, buy an avalung to atleast increase your chance of survival. Five minutes is pretty damn quick to dig someone out. And imagine the multi-burial scenario. Your lucky to get dug out in less than 10 minutes.

I always try to imagine what would happen if 'this slope slid' before I ski it or skin it. What would the consequences be? Burial, rocks, trees, etc. Also, where are you going to try to go if it does slide. I think about that nearly every other turn. I also try to think 'get your avalung in your mouth, swim, swim, protect your head and neck, etc'.

You want to be scared, put on your avalung, dig a hole in the snow, jump in and have your friends bury you for a minute or so. Panic is the only emotion.

Disclaimer: Don't be an ass if you do this. Leave an arm up or some way of notifying your buddies you need out.

[truth]

I have and use an avalung 2, in a tree well in BC last year it bought me the time I needed to calm down and think my way out.

[powstash]

Here's a beauty - I just can't imagine what this guy was thinking!



I've skied this slope once and looked at it/poked around probably 10-12 times. It's BIG, (if you can't tell from the photo). East facing, 35-40 degrees with little ribs and rollover features all across the slope. WIND LOAD CITY! The wind nukes up BCC and just loads this slope. Cornices on this bowl are larger than most any area on the Park City ridge line. I looked at this slope last Saturday and said "no thanks." It rarely gets skied, and more often than not I've seen it either untracked or ripped wall to wall. A friend of mine was caught in a slide in this bowl, partially burried and lived to tell. He's never been back to ski/ride it.

Another compounding thing is that this bowl is about as far from The Canyons, Park City and Brighton/Solitude as you can get so it's rare for people to 1. ski it, 2. have any sort of knowledge about it.

Thing is, I have an idea of who this individual may be - he's bold, brash, and jumps into things without digging around. I've seen him out on this slope before in scary times.

This is by far more bold than the previous photo, if we're measuring "boldness". It's just plain dumb.

[lph]

we have a heavily tree'd slope called waterhouse/powderhouse that you have all seen us refer to from time to time. it is where alot of people go the day of and the day after a storm, because the trees are so dense.

with the exception of the 'bowl' section, it is so dense you could put a mac truck in there and not be able to see it from the road. yet is very skiable and very fun.

next time we are up there on a powder day i will shoot some video.

i can't think of any conditions in which i would hesitate to go up there. gimpy have you ever thought twice about skiing up there after a big dump??

[gramps]

In regards to the first picture -

It's the west bowl of Siver Fork. To the guy's credit, that bowl curves around quite a bit, the slide happened on N exposure, he's skiing W exposure. Also, I think the terrain the slide occured on was quite a bit steeper than what he's skiing. Having skied that exact line before, I'd say it's pretty mellow, but capable of sliding in the right conditions I'm sure. He's still nuts, skiing such an exposed line right next to such a big slide when the danger is High.

As for the pit - that's when we usually pull out the rope. It allows us to get "bullseye" data for the slope we're about to ski, without putting the pit digger in danger.

I haven't been out in the BC since this storm cycle. I was going to go out to BCC and check out Green's Basin, and maybe some mellow stuff on the North side of the road with a friend today. Then my roommate Dave refused to participate, citing the avy danger, and offered my friend one of his free tickets to Alta, so they went there. I decided to give it a rest today and study for finals - you can all see how productive I'm being.

[Keoni]

Here's a beauty - I just can't imagine what this guy was thinking!

That guy's making the second set of tracks. Whoever made the first set looks like they said, "Oh shit, I'm getting out of here!"

[gramps]

Here's a beauty - I just can't imagine what this guy was thinking!

Looking over on t-tips, I saw that those first tracks were made by a very experienced skier. He dropped a big cornice first, you can see it's path next to the ski tracks. So it wasn't a bunch of idiots skiing that slope.

[Bud Green]

The guys skiing in the second photo are avalanche forecasters/observers. They know what they're doing. Looking at a photo on the web from your office in another country and judging people's intelligence is kind of lame. Judging snowmobilers intelligence on the other hand is easy.

[CS]

Looking over on t-tips, I saw that those first tracks were made by a very experienced skier. He dropped a big cornice first, you can see it's path next to the ski tracks. So it wasn't a bunch of idiots skiing that slope.

A veritable wizard, from what I hear.

[powstash]

Looking at a photo on the web from your office in another country and judging people's intelligence is kind of lame.

Hmmm, last time I checked I was at my house, looking at the top of the bowl from the front deck, making judgements. I know Park City is like another country within Utah, but.....

Experienced or not, the white dragon is not prejudicial. I still think it's a bold move.

[cj001f]

A bad weekend in Utah:
Third body found in Utah Avalanches
Stupid Reporters
"Dejong was unconscious and barely breathing when he was pulled out, but he was not seriously injured."


One need only look at the number of avy forecasters who've died in avalanches to see they don't know everything.

[gramps]

Here's a beauty - I just can't imagine what this guy was thinking!

I'm sure the cornice drop was a deciding factor. Notice he skied right next to it's path (his first set of tracks, not the second guy). It was bold considering the conditions, but if a huge cornice drop doesn't make the slope slide, that's a lot more "bullseye" data than the avy report.

[Trackhead]

Avy 'forecasters'. Key word, forecaster. Like the weather, they can be wrong.

No offense Redbaron.

[wra]

It has come to my attention that some of my photos have been used on this thread.
Regarding the last one.

A cornice the size of a box car was dropped on the slope, this after most of the bowl had natural avalanched. Tracks were made on the bed surface of the old slide and next to the massive cornice drop. Some people like to ski steep, and when the hazard is high a good way of doing so is to ski slide paths which have already avalanched.

As far as being a dumb ass for doing so? I have been skiing for the last five days during a period of unstable snow conditions. Much ground has been covered with about half the pictures on this
http://www.avalanche.org/%7Euac/photos_04-05.htm

mine.

Here's one from today.



This is the result of two cases of bombs, used for avalanche control so the rescue team could find the snowshoers buried in a slide yesterday in the drainage. One was found and the other remains buried.

I may be a dumb ass but I'm smarter than the majority commenting on this thread.

[Trackhead]

^^^I, for one, appreciate your photos on UAC's site. The more photos published, the better the learning experience.

Thanks for getting out and posting them. It is invaluable.

[iceman]

This thread wins iceman's personal "Most Replies Deleted Before They were Posted" Award.

There's a lot of ways to look at this, I am not certain that wra's approach is the best, yet neither can I say it's the worst.

It does stink like patchouli in here all of a sudden, though.

[natty dread]

Buzz....Avy Center report

Damn...
Props to his partner for digging him out quickly.
So sad.

[BFD]

In the first picture I would dig the pit right off the summit about two turns down in the shadowy area. As for the second snowmachine picture I think that line looks ok although not much of a line. The advantage is we can come from the top and inspect the bed surface while the snowmachiner has to climb straight up into the danger to find out if there is any.

[subtle plague]

The avy class I went to said that for you to take trees into consideration as a safety factor, they'd better be big and close enough together it's damn near unskiable. Otherwise, when they're just here and there and there's plenty of space between them, they're just something you're going to crash into when it slides.

First good comment about trees i read

As long as you can ski it(either way because of angle or trees), there is no safe place on an HIGH (euro 4) day. Even if you try to stay on a slope which is below 30° (or 27-28 if you want to stay reeaaally safe for in the alps there has not been one avalanche,natural or triggered, on a slope less steep than that. of course it is taken for granted there are no steeper zones above which can release by distance.) you have to make sure there is not just a 10m patch of steeper snow. which is nearly impossible, because even the best topographical maps dont't go down to that scale.
And many people have been buried in those 10-20m traps.