self rescue

We hope to gather more information in the next day or so.

Skier comments: "never seen that area break ever in my life.... buried above the waist, over an hour to self evacuate... caught on far side very close to full burial"

Forecaster Comments: I went to investigate this close call with Brighton ski patrol. The avalanche occurred just outside of Brighton ski area in an areas called Hidden Canyon. The Great Western lift has yet open and so this terrain was accessed either via the Crest/Snake Creek lifts with a booter and/or skin access or by accessing this terrain via uphill travel/skins from the bottom. Hidden Canyon is steep, rocky, often wind loaded and generally holds early season weak faceted grains. Furthermore, avalanche victims are generally strained through trees and over rocky terrain. Photos below.

In this case, all of this held true for this avalanche incident. The avalanche broke 2' deep and 250' wide as a soft slab resting on a persistent weak layer and very similar to the scores of avalanches triggered in recent days. A few of the debris blocks could be considered hard slab as the avalanche propagated into much more heavily wind loaded terrain. The faceted grains were 2mm and exceedingly weak. Our party felt a collapse along the ridgeline while hunting this avalanche. This was a very close call.