UTAH: I triggered and Avalanche. Be careful out there!

[theshadowrider]

I am posting this to help others and not for the sometimes "typical" SW experience. Had quite the experience last time out riding. Its always good, and Thanks is always given, when you come back from a day of riding with your sled in one piece and everyone is safe. This day extra Thanks was given. Avalanche conditions are still bad as illustrated by the pictures below. We went to one of our favorite spots to do some climbing. I like climbing here because it has a large run-out and options for the worst case scenario's. I am glad I had extra power (12 lbs boost) and was able to climb out above it. Not a fun filling when the ground starts moving on you. It broke 30' above me and I was able to climb to what I thought was safety above the slide. I got nervous (more nervous) above where it broke, because I thought out of the corner of my eye I saw another fracture and I didn't have the speed to climb out of that one. So, I turned and went down and deployed my airbag. BTW I have always thought it would be hard to pull the handle while riding and having to let go of the handle bars. It took all of .1 seconds to reach and grab and pull and then hammer down. Now I came down with the worry of not knowing what was following behind me. Got to the bottom and I was now moving fast, 60+ mph, and realized there is a big pile of snow at the bottom and I am now going airborne. Squared up the best I could and took some air off a 5' slab kicker! Got some air and landed hard but I was now out of the danger zone. I am very grateful that nobody was hurt. I didn't need to deploy the bag, but its better to be safe than sorry. Interested point. I got to the bottom and thought, "stupid airbag didn't event deploy." I really couldn't even tell that it was out and it didn't impede my riding or ability to ride fast and jump some technical spots. Took all of 5 min to pack it back up. Thanks to SNOWBIGDEAL and getting me a refill tank the next day for $35. We inspected the slide after and apparently what I thought was another fracture above me was a set off coyotes tracks traversing horizontally across the top. Having a radio would of been nice for my spotter to tell me stay up and not turn and come down. Lesson learned: A hill that has previously broke, doesn't mean it wont break again.

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[Qreiff]

Glad to hear you are okay. Super scary.

Thanks for sharing and posting up pictures.

 

[EagleRiverDee]

I have a question (ok, more than one). You knew going into this that avy conditions were high- what made you choose to ride slopes that day instead of sticking to safer terrain? And, do you feel you would have made the same choice if you hadn't been wearing an avy bag? I'm not bashing. I'm curious what your thought process was, how high you felt the risk was before going onto the hill, and whether wearing an ABS bag made any difference in your decision making process. Also- were the other riders in your group similarly equipped with ABS bags? Is there a video? I see at least one person had a GoPro?

 

[SledsWest]

Avy conditions that day were moderate with patches of considerable on the N, NE, E aspects. With the amount of faceted basal layer that we have this year, I'm surprised the conditions are considerable with patches of high for the rest of the year. The hills are dangerous this year, take it easy.

 

[theshadowrider]

I have a question (ok, more than one). You knew going into this that avy conditions were high- what made you choose to ride slopes that day instead of sticking to safer terrain? And, do you feel you would have made the same choice if you hadn't been wearing an avy bag? I'm not bashing. I'm curious what your thought process was, how high you felt the risk was before going onto the hill, and whether wearing an ABS bag made any difference in your decision making process. Also- were the other riders in your group similarly equipped with ABS bags? Is there a video? I see at least one person had a GoPro?

No worries on the questions. The ABS in no way affected my decision process to climb the hill. I got it with hopes of never pulling it. Same with having a beacon. I have a beacon but hope to never use it. I have an airbag in my truck, and hope to also never use it. It was more to do with my sled and having a turbo. As stated the conditions where moderate and it was East/Southeast slope. We are familiar with the area and have stayed out of there with the conditions being considerable until recently. We came in from above to scope the area out, noticing all the hills had slid. This particular hill had slid I assume in the January storms. I was hoping in the process the weak layer was taken out that is causing so many problems this year. Based on that, and the snow being in the sun had setup up some, I felt the chances of sliding were lower. I did a test run up it and felt I had what it took to get up it. Turned the boost up and let her rip. This was on part of the hill that has quite a few options as an out. There are other parts of the hill that are popular to ride, the ones to the left in the pictures is more of a chute with no real options to turn out and we were staying out of that one. If they say a picture is worth a thousand words, I would say being "in" a picture is worth a million words! As for video we are kicking are ourselves for not have videos going. I think it would have been very informative!

 

[blizzard]

I am glad to hear that you are ok and that you had the propper gear.
keep it safe.

 

[James T Kirk]

No worries on the questions. The ABS in no way affected my decision process to climb the hill. I got it with hopes of never pulling it. Same with having a beacon. I have a beacon but hope to never use it. I have an airbag in my truck, and hope to also never use it. It was more to do with my sled and having a turbo. As stated the conditions where moderate and it was East/Southeast slope. We are familiar with the area and have stayed out of there with the conditions being considerable until recently. We came in from above to scope the area out, noticing all the hills had slid. This particular hill had slid I assume in the January storms. I was hoping in the process the weak layer was taken out that is causing so many problems this year. Based on that, and the snow being in the sun had setup up some, I felt the chances of sliding were lower. I did a test run up it and felt I had what it took to get up it. Turned the boost up and let her rip. This was on part of the hill that has quite a few options as an out. There are other parts of the hill that are popular to ride, the ones to the left in the pictures is more of a chute with no real options to turn out and we were staying out of that one. If they say a picture is worth a thousand words, I would say being "in" a picture is worth a million words! As for video we are kicking are ourselves for not have videos going. I think it would have been very informative!

Just curious how much avalanche training you have going into this? Planning on taking more now?

 

[Snowbird11]

here's another utah/idaho slide taken from the UAC forecast. could have ended badly if he stayed with the sled and went through the louisville factory.

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[adamsrider]

WOW