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Avalanche: Hells Canyon

Observer Name
Joe
Observation Date
Friday, March 29, 2019
Avalanche Date
Friday, March 29, 2019
Region
Ogden » Snowbasin Backcountry » Hells Canyon
Location Name or Route
Lust - Hells Canyon
Comments
One skier one boarder riding hells canyon. We were skiing 2.5 between pride/gluttony I came in low to a ridge that frequently gets wind loaded skier 1 stayed high on skiers right we decided he would ski right first and I would drop left to other ridge to avoid the wind pocket. After skier 1 dropped I moved ahead to get a video when I released the wind pocket. Yelled to skier 1 he stopped well out of path where I then skied down and we regrouped and looked at the slide. Small slide but we both agreed we should not be in here and proceed to exit. Skier 1 went first and stopped at a tree on left hand side of the cemetery were we regrouped again within a few seconds of stopping lust or #1 released to the side of us a very large slide, running full length the powder cloud almost reaching were we were stopped. We were maybe 30 seconds away from exiting the exact slide path. Far too close of a call. We both knew the conditions and chose to try and thread the needle. Poor call. At this time I’m still unsure of the trigger. We both looked for visual clues but choose to exit quickly one at a time feeling it was far too dangerous to stay.