- Submitted by
- SethV
- Observations date
- Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 21:00
- Location
- 50.879209° N 118.200220° W
- Reporting on
- Snow conditions
/-118.20021997259613,50.879209238347585,8,0,0/1026x200?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoiYXZhbGFuY2hlY2FuYWRhIiwiYSI6ImNqd2dvZmUxdzE4ZWg0M2tkaXpuNG95aTQifQ.pBLM87fE3sIxRJqJT7Bf7g "Scary Size 1.5 lower down on Begbie Shoulder")
Quick
Avalanche
Snowpack
Weather
Incident
Information
- Avalanche date/time
- Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 13:00
- Number of avalanches in this report
- 1
- The size of avalanche
- 1.5
- Slab thickness
- 30cm
- Slab width
- 6m
- Run length
- 50m
- Avalanche Character
- Storm slab
- Trigger type
- Skier
- Trigger subtype
- Accidental
- Start zone aspect
- N
- Start zone elevation band
- Below treeline
- Start zone elevation
- 1,600m
- Weak layer crystal type
- Storm snow
- Wind exposure
- No wind exposure
Comments
We started out very cautious of the storm slab but as we got lower into the mature forest our focus shifted from avalanches to how to get to the road. In a momentary lapse of judgement we skied through a more open patch in the trees and had a scary moment. At lower elevations with warmer temperatures the storm slab is more cohesive and can propagate easily on the right kind of feature. This was a mostly buried pillow that released and pushed on more snow below, causing it to release as well. The skier was able to ski off to the side and out of harms way. Being pushed into the trees could have been bad.
