Above Hanging Lake

Activity

Other

snowboarding

Total in the group?

6

People not injured (caught but not buried)?

1

People involved?

1

Terrain shape at trigger point

Convex

Snow depth at trigger point

Deep

Terrain traps

• Gully or depression

I was entering the gully to the skier's left of the convexity but got too close to it and when it popped it flanked my right side and knocked me head first as I started to slide down the gully. I felt like I was fully submerged when my hand managed to pull the handle and deploy my airbag, was the best feeling ever when my head reamerged on the surface, and when I finally stopped I was mostly above the snow, looking uphill resting on the bag. So somehow I went from face down to back down, perhaps partly from what I was able to do with my arms as I got closer to the surface. Very thankful I stopped where I did as it was right before a steep drop to a lesser slope angle where I could have been re-burried, and also that I didn't hit any trees or obstacles on the way down. Also we had just done a rescue test as a group and I was only the 2nd to go in our group of 6 so I had 4 very capable rescuers right behind me had I been buried. Still very glad I had the airbag!

We'd dug a pit ealier that afternoon on the east aspect just above Hanging Lake and observed 80cm of storm slab above the persistent slab crust, but it had a fairly favorable looking density gradient