January 3 Avalanche at Schweitzer OB Incident Report

[GoldMember]

I just saw this regarding a slide that occurred on the 3rd. We could see the slide from the ski area with tracks in and tracks out but the report just surfaced. Lucky guy.

https://www.facebook.com/friendsofip...00613536664598

[Bunion 2020]

Big Blue
1/3/21 10AM

Although not my home mountain, I've skied Schweitzer over the years and have previously skied Big Blue after storms. I am an experienced, confident skier, and have spent time in the backcountry. I have never seen or heard of the actual main face of Blue sliding. The slide prone area that is generally talked about, which I have seen, is on the steeper line just before the top, on skiers right. I did not have concern at all in hiking up to ski Blue, since I had not heard of a slide, and I had skied it before.

The avalanche occurred on Sunday, Jan 3, around 10:10am. We had received about 11 inches of snow overnight. It was a beautiful sunny morning. As I made a skin track up from the Tbar, I heard no whomping or other ominous sounds. Temperatures seemed cool enough, no snow falling from trees, everything felt fine. I had a sense of security because of my familiarity and experience with this slope. I did not check the avalanche report at IPAC that was issued that same morning. Seeing it after the fact, the avalanche rating was High on all aspects.

I transitioned at the very top, in the middle of the slope. I did not stomp around or dig a pit, thinking it unnecessary for the angle of the slope.

Almost immediately as I dropped in, the snow about 10 feet in front of me broke open right around one of the trees. I immediately started veering to the right, thinking I could stop and let the slide happen below me. The snow seemed to be moving very slowly. It looked like water churning. Then it started spreading out and up towards me. Very quickly I was in the churning snow, everything shaking and shushing around me. I continued to work to stay on my skis at the top of the snow, and to veer towards the side of the path, stepping upwards like side hilling up a slope. I made no progress and the avalanche was spreading and flowing faster. I was being shaken by the force and almost knocked down. Maybe halfway down the slope, heading quickly toward a tree, I experienced me being still, and the ground and trees moving towards me. It was harder to be in control and stay on my skis. Right around that next level of lightly spaced trees, where the slope flattens a little bit, I was able to ski out and to the right, and to watch the slide continue all the way to the flatter runout below.

I am very fortunate, and realize this could have gone a different way. In the future, along with checking the signs in the environment I will always check the IPAC reports and hope others, no matter how experienced, do the same.

Sobering and good of him to post that up.

The section I highlighted in Red is interesting. Until you have been on a slab while it is moving there is no way to understand how weird that feeling is.

[toastybroski]

That sums it up really well. For me it felt like a combo of being still and being in a perfect river of snow. It wasn't until after it was over that I felt scared and got worried, otherwise it was almost fun.

[whipski]

" I had a sense of security because of my familiarity and experience with this slope." Yep

[jono]

I'm a little surprised that he was surprised. It seems like this is almost exactly the spot that has slid a couple times in recent years--right over the rock fall that Google maps shows.

Goldmember, am I off base here, or did it slide there a few years ago?

Good on him for reporting and good call on checking conditions before hitting familiar terrain.

[GoldMember]

Jono - No, you're right, it's slid in the middle of that face a number of times. I know of at least three other instances I can recall in my 30 years of skiing there. I'm not getting into the things I think he did wrong or underestimated as I'm glad he's okay, he made the report, and was honest about what happened but not realizing that face slides is a big one. I'm always reluctant to go out on that face and try to stay more toward the trees on skier's right. Even then, there's no way I would venture out that way in conditions as they were at that time. That slope is typically wind loaded and sketchy, even in what are typically classified as stable conditions. We usually ask some patrol friends or Kenny (Selkirk Powder) what they're seeing for the snowpack when we go out.