Accident: Days Headwall

Observer Name
Dax Williamson, Will Morris etc
Observation Date
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Avalanche Date
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Days Fork » Days Headwall
Location Name or Route
Elevation
10,200'
Aspect
North
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Unintentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Depth
2'
Width
250'
Vertical
Unknown
Caught
1
Carried
1
Buried - Partly
3
Accident and Rescue Summary

The two having lunch below had all their gear covered by debris but still managed to go dig out the victim who was reportedly buried up to his neck. He was the 5th skier on the slope.

Comments

Got a little spooked right off the bat today. Headed up Flagstaff in the morning and then across the Reed and Benson ridge on the way to Hallway. Winds were ripping and dumping a ton of snow in upper Days. Ducked behind a rock for a second and popped out to see a large slide in upper Days. Slide looked to be over 2' in places and I know that it's a crappy picture, but clouds and 50mph gusts do not help my lack of skills. It appeared that there were two skiers and two sets of tracks. Looked like the second skier must have triggered it at a thinner rocky section since there were a few rocks poking through the bed surface. Saw two people moving in the woods below the debris pile and my partner called Alta central. Apparently the party had a partial burial but was recovered without injuries and proceeded out without assistance. Happy to hear that no one was hurt. We headed over to Hallway, which was west facing and not wind loaded and skied beautifully and out through the tube. Then as we were heading across Cardiff towards Mineral on an East facing slope we found a pocket that had pulled out from a previous ski cut. Looked like it went on a ski cut up to 18" deep. East facing and likely loaded up with the same winds as the Days slide. As I approached the crown I got a loud collapse and shooting crack, so there's a lot of energy stored in some of these pockets that could really ruin your day. Skied out Westerly facing Mineral fork without incident. Snow was heavy but stable and skied well. Both in one isolated pocket described above. A lot of it early seemed mostly out of the West. Heavy density snow. I was really surprised that there was as much wind transport. We definitely observed a pocket of considerable. By the afternoon ~4pm things seemed to have settled a lot with quite a bit of sun and warmth. Probably a moderate day tomorrow, but there are the odd energetic windslabs that could ruin your day.

Comments

As per phone observation.....two having lunch at the bottom of the run had the debris overrun them and their gear. Some gear lost. Had to help partially buried skier with victim's own shovel.

More from one of the two nearly buried at the bottom:

"ski cuts were made but the snow was really stubborn...pretty freaky to be down in the trees and hear that wall coming...it was just like 'ok, grab a tree!, '. we did not know there was another party coming down behind us. when we heard the pocket fail there was a moment we just paused and didnt think fast enuff to grab my pack where the probe and shovel would be to help locate and dig someone out...it happened real fast. lucky. if there had been a full burial and no others to provide the shovel to dig...well, we would have been hard pressed to get someone out in less than 10 minutes. .... the guy that got buried had no success getting his mouth piece in from his avalung...when he 'realized' this he just kept swimming and was able to float back to the top after full submersion."

Comments

Picture of where the two were having lunch in the runout zone.

Comments

Note that the slide was triggered at the thin spot. It was reported that the victim was the fifth person on the slope.

Coordinates