Bow Hut Headwall

Avalanche date/time

Sunday, January 29, 2017 at 16:00

Estimated occurrence time of avalanche

Less than 12 hours ago

Number of avalanches in this report

1

The size of avalanche

1

Slab thickness

10cm

Slab width

20m

Run length

40m

Avalanche Character

• Loose dry
• Wind slab

Trigger type

Skier

Trigger subtype

Accidental

Start zone aspect

• E

Start zone elevation band

• Alpine

Start zone elevation

2,325m

Crust near weak layer

Yes

Wind exposure

Lee slope

Vegetation cover

Open slope

Skier triggered size 1 on headwall. Slide was probably caused by fresh snow on reactive wind slab. Details below.

Bit of a late start into Bow Hut. We made it to the hut shortly after 3 with a plan to come straight out by dark. Conditions en route had a lot of red flags - snow by Num-Ti-Jah Lodge was slabby, Bow Lake was wind scoured, canyon had at least one small slab avalanche that appeared to be skier triggered, high winds, and moderately heavy snowfall. We asked people coming out and no one raised any red flags.... just said ski quality was poor. Headwall was too slick to skin up so about half way took skis off and boot packed up.

Slide happened on way out in near white out conditions - yo yoing the head wall about 2/3 of the way down slope gave out. Skier managed to stay upright and ski out of the slide. With the flat light we didn't realize how big the slide was until looking at pictures in the car.