Avalanche: Timpanogos

Observer Name
Josey Weik
Observation Date
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Avalanche Date
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Region
Provo » Timpanogos
Location Name or Route
Timpanagos east approach.
Elevation
9,300'
Aspect
Northeast
Trigger
Skier
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Weak Layer
Density Change
Depth
9"
Width
30'
Carried
1
Comments
My partner and I were on our way up to emerald lake to overnight camp there and summit Timpanagos pre dawn. We started in aspen Grove at 3:15pm. Working our way up through and around the cliff bands we experienced strong funneled wind gusts and saw a lot of windloading. We arrived at the bottom of a cliff band where our options were either go right, tranistion to axes and crampons and do a small mixed snow/ice climb or go left, and cross a small hump of windloaded snow. I didn't like the look of the snow, although to be honest at the time I was mostly not wanting to break trail wallowing through it. It didn't appear like a hard windload from where I stood. We decided with sunset approaching and our safe zone close at hand we should poke around and see how deep the lefthand path was as it could save us time and energy. In retrospect, not trusting my gut to go to the right was my biggest mistake of the day. I went forward with my partner giving space watching in case I triggered something. Suddenly I saw snow cracking 15 feet to either side of me and 10 feet above and below me. I was immediately knocked off my feet and started accelerating to about 15mph. My partner radios me to go left so I tried to bring my skis around to point that direction but as I was in walk mode they pivoted to point directly downhill. When I realized I couldn't really move with my 45lb pack on and my skis pointed incorrectly I dropped one of my whippet poles and used all my force to drag myself across the path to the left. In hindsight I'm unsure if that was a helpful instinct or not. A few seconds later the avalanche lost momentum and I came to a stop completely uninjured and unburied after being carried about 150 feet with my other pole visibly sticking out of the snow above me. I got up, checked my gear, took photos and made mental notes, grabbed my pole, and we continued up after discussing and deciding the quicker path to safety with limited light was up to the plateau to camp. After completing the mixed climb however, one of my buckles broke and my sleeping bag went flying off a 50 foot cliff below us and down the mountain with a lot of speed. Dejected I set up a rappel off a sturdy looking pine tree and we began heading back down, now in the dark, as I didn't want to camp at 10 degrees without a sleeping bag. We found the bag near the bottom and found safe place to camp near the parking lot.
This was my first time seeing or being carried by an avalanche. I feel pretty good about the decisions we made observing and avoiding potential windslabs up until right before the incident. I feel like if you are even considering a physically hard or slower route it's a good indicator that the other option is probably sketchy and more thought should be put into why you are having a bad feeling about that. Lessons were learned and I'm glad no one was hurt.
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