I've made no secret about our pathetic winter so far up here in Alaska. Mat (Anchorage Avalanche Center) and I've be making the best of things and skiing boiler plate and rare chalk where we can find it. But a odd little storm blew over the Kenai Mountains yesterday and left a lovely little gift of softness and sunshine that we enjoyed today. Oddly, most of the other mountains in South Central AK saw little to nothing.
Reported was about 16 inches which would be more than enough to play on. The wind loading was reportedly moderate so the slide danger was predicted to be "manageable" in many of the popular spots at Turnagain Pass. There was a good crowd at the Tincan parking lot so we headed further to Sunburst. Our typical crack-of-ass start meant that the track was in and a few avalanche poodles had already taken one for the team.
Mat was decked out in fat skis and a blow up doll pack on his back. I had my new Cho Oyu set up with Plum 165s. He probably had at least 15 pounds on me. But, hey, he's 29 and I'm 52. Seemed about even to me. Anyway, it didn't slow him down as we motored the first 2,400' in about 45 minutes. We did 3 laps on the 1,200' run from the false summit. There were few signs of instability in the area. A couple of small pockets pulled out on Tincan across the way but nothing around us. We hit the firm surface below the fresh snow but it was still fun.
On our 4th lap up someone had pushed the skinner up the ridge past a creepy roll over so we headed up there, too. We then took the skinner all the way up to the top to have a look. We found a nice looking shot but we were both skeptical. We had the usual discussion about what we'd been skiing and how it was a similar aspect. We thought about cutting the cornice but didn't think we could do so safely since it was large. Most of the ridge was not corniced and I spied an easy entrance to ski cut the slope with a nice rocky rib on the other side to aim for. I'd have to drop a little lower than I'd like due to some rocks just in front of my entry.
Mat agreed on the plan. It seemed reasonable. Honestly, I didn't expect anything to move anyway. Now, I like to ski cut fast but the skis I had today were only 90mm underfoot and sank in a bit more than pure powder oriented skis. As I dropped in, the additional depth of snow was immediately obvious and caught me off guard for a second. I couldn't feel the base like I did all day to that point. I could've fallen right then. That would be bad.
But I regained my balance and did the obligatory look back over my shoulder as I shot across. Just then, I saw the crack to my uphill and got that sick feeling for an instant. The rocks were right there in front of me but I was slowing going forward as I started down on the soft slab. The snow in front me broke and I willed myself the last few feet to safety. There was a brief instant where I thought I might get sucked backwards into the slide.
Looking back after Mat skied across the bed.
The debris was soft and there was little hang fire. We skied the bed down over a thousand feet and onto the soft debris pile to the bottom.
Debrief
Wendy Wagner at Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center was on site about an hour after we kicked this off and did a nice pit profile at the crown along with a video discussion of her thoughts. Check it here.
I can't count the number of YouTube videos I've watched of skiers and boarders in similar situations center punching terrain like this and paying for it. Although everything worked out fine and events transpired as we hoped, a few things would have made it better and a bit safer.
- Bigger skis allowing for a faster, more stable shot across the zone.
- A higher line taking me off a greater portion of the slab. In hindsight, however, it broke much higher than I would've been able to ski no matter what entry I chose.
- Recognizing the nature of this section of the ridge. Although much of the slope around this section wasn't nearly as loaded, this zone had the biggest cornice, by far, and deepest snow at the start. A product of wind dynamics and slope contour at this isolated section of ridge, I suspect.
- I'm convinced that Turnagain Pass has a unique quality with its wide open slopes that are best skied with fat skis. These allow for more speed, increased platform and balance affording greater chance to ski through unexpected instability events. They certainly shouldn't give license to be any less cautious but may improve one's chances in the event of something stupid.
Bottom line is this shit's dangerous. When you pull off something like this it's easy to feel like "you've got this" but, in reality, the control we feel we have up in the mountains is tenuous and dynamic, subject to unseen and unexpected variations in observable patterns. I'm not kidding myself about anything here. We're going back today and I guarantee we'll be pulling it back a notch with yesterday's fun fresh in mind. Stay safe.