Trophy Mountain Avalanche Incident
Observed Feb 5, 2022, 10:00 a.m. PST · cariboos
This report was submitted with an older form.
Quick report
- Weather
- Cloudy, Windy, Sunny
- Ride type
- Mellow slopes, Dense trees, Open trees
- Stayed away
- Convex slopes, Alpine slopes
- Riding quality
- Good
- Snow conditions
- Crusty, Powder, Heavy, Wind affected, Hard
- Avalanche conditions
- Avalanche condition snow, Avalanche condition slab
Avalanche report
- Comment
- Ski remote triggered 20 meters that propagated about 150 meters up and along the slope above. The first avalanche was wind slab with a 20-30 cm crown. Moments later, a second avalanche started about 10 meters below the first on the previous storm slab with all of the debris coming to rest in a small flat area and a nearby depression.
- Run length
- 150
- Slab width
- 150
- Trigger type
- Skier
- Wind exposure
- Cross loaded slope
- Avalanche size
- 2
- Slab thickness
- 20
- Trigger sub type
- Remote
- Start zone aspect
- NE
- Trigger distance
- 20
- Vegetation cover
- Sparse trees
- Start zone incline
- 30
- Avalanche character
- Wind slab, Storm slab
- Crust near weak layer
- No
- Number of avalanches
- 2-5
- Start zone elevation
- 2120
- Runout zone elevation
- 2040
- Weak layer burial date
- 2022-02-05
- Avalanche observation
- 24to48hrsAgo
- Weak layer crystal type
- Storm snow
- Start zone elevation band
- Tln
- Avalanche occurrence datetime
- 2022-02-05T18:00:00.000Z
Weather report
- Avg temp
- -5
- Max temp
- -9
- Min temp
- -4
- Wind speed
- Wind speed extreme
- Blowing snow
- Intense
- Sky condition
- Scattered clouds
- Wind direction
- NW
- New snow24hours
- 6
- Storm start date
- 2022-02-03
- Storm snow amount
- 15
- Temperature trend
- Steady
- Precipitation type
- Snow
Incident report
- Group size
- 6
- Description
- Our group of six was traversing across a relatively flat area about 20 meters from the base of a wind loaded slope following a line of trees. One of the group proceeded to move ahead a little bit to our next rally point. As he moved onto the bench out of the trees, he remotely triggered the first slide. As it was coming down, he had nearly moved out of the way when a second, deeper slab released. The second avalanche caught up with him before he was clear and he was swept away. Multiple members of the group witnessed this happening and noted his point last seen. After waiting a few moments for the avalanche to end, the group ensured they were safe, switched to search, and then had a couple of members start towards the buried member. Within two minutes, his head and one arm were spotted and we moved to his location. He had been swept about 15 meters from him PLS. He was fine with no impaired breathing and no injuries and we had him freed within a few minutes. He still had his poles and one ski and we found the second after a few minutes of searching.
- Terrain trap
- Slope transition or bench
- Group activity
- Skiing
- Number injured
- 0
- Number involved
- 1
- Number caught only
- 0
- Number fully buried
- 0
- Snow depth trigger point
- Average
- Terrain shape trigger point
- Planar
- Number partly buried able breathing
- 1
- Number partly buried impaired breathing
- 0