Public Field Report

Observation Date:

January 24, 2022

Submitted:

January 26, 2022

Zone or Region:

Soldier and Wood River Valley Mtns

Activity:

Skiing/Snowboarding

Location:

Warm Springs drainage

Did you trigger any avalanches?

Yes

Was it intentional?

Avalanche Type:

Dry Loose (Sluff)

Size:

Size 2: Could bury, injure, or kill a person

Elevation:

6,800 to 6,500

Aspect:

Comments:

Narrow, lower NE aspect to skiers left of rocky ridge. Initial angle of 40 degrees pitched over to near 50 degrees. Depth varied from initial sluffing of a few inches to over a foot as slope broke away under skier. Initial sluff expanded from width of turn to 25 feet when it broke and ran to the drainage floor 300 feet below.

None reported

We had been skiing the same aspect for several days in the non-inversion impacted (ie, colder) elevations of 7,500 to 6,000. Snow was a combination of surface hoar and increasingly sugary sugar, leading to less and less surface cohesiveness. Even with a "Low" danger rating, I approached this steeper slope with antennas up...but was still surprised when "sluff management" became "slide survival" as the sluff I'd become accustomed to turned into a slide as the slope broke away from me under my skis. Luckily my natural reaction was to stay upright (as opposed to pull my blower) and ski...ok, not so much as ski, but maneuver...to the right (completing my right turn) out of the accelerating debris finding safety below some trees. I dropped and lost my right pole as I used my right hand to "surf" the debris. Pole was eventually found popping out of the debris a couple of hundred of feet down. Could have been possibly been buried, or at the least run into the trees below. Have been skiing seriously for over 40 years and have never been in a slide. As you always say, Low Danger does not mean No Danger.