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Date: 2001-03-01
Submitted By: Bill Glude SE Alaska Avalanche Center
Place: The Hogsback, near Eaglecrest Ski area
State: AK
Country: USA
Summary: 1 skier caught and buried, minor injuries
Date:
March 1, 2001 Thursday
Location:
The Hogsback; a ridge on Douglas Island near Juneau, Alaska; about 0.6Km
west of the Eaglecrest Ski area West Bowl boundary line (not a part of
the ski area).
Victim:
Adam Roy, of Colorado; skier; buried with one hand out; had just dug
down to clear his face when ski partner Stephan Drake, who had descended
first without incident, spotted his hand in the debris and helped dig
him out. Only minor injuries were reported.
Slides:
A short while earlier, a snowboarder had triggered an adjacent slope,
the Boxcar, reportedly a 1m thick x 15m wide x 100m long slab, as he
landed the large cliff jump which is the mandatory entry. He barely rode
off the slab and escaped. Adam, Stephan, and a local boarder prepared to
descend farther skier's left, down the 40-50 degree entry to the 30-45
degree, NNE facing, sparsely treed, run. Stephan went first on skis and
pulled up in a safe spot below the 280m descent. Adam dropped in farther
skiers right among rocks; while the local boarder descended the center
of the main bowl without incident. Adam triggered a first slab when he
hit the drifted-in area just below the rocks (a small cliff in summer),
reportedly about 30cm thick and 100m wide, and was carried down to a
near-flat bench partway down the run, where he ended up on top. As he
started to get up, he was hit by the leading edge of a much larger slide
which his first one had triggered, which carried him to the bottom of
the slope and buried him. This slide was reportedly up to 2-3m thick and
300m wide. All involved had hiked to the Hogsback from the top of the
ski area.
Weather and snowpack:
A thaw crust formed on January 31 has been overlain by 5 to 25 cm of
early near-surface facets formed during a long sunny period in February,
some areas of windslab, and then about 20cm of new wet snow and some
rime crusts on February 26-27, and 15-50cm of fresh light snow on the
27th and 28th. Shear test values on the facet layer, all on 35-45 degree
slopes, have gone from #3 (fails on knee flex) when it was first loaded
to a consistent #6 (fails only on multiple jumps) in the last week.
Stuffblock tests on the day of the slide were failing at 60cm drop
height on 45 degrees. Explosive work at the ski area produced only small
surface slabs on the day of the accident, and people were hiking and
riding all angles and aspects both in bounds and out of bounds without
incident, except for the Hogsback. the weather was -1 C, mostly calm but
with E gusts to 15m/sec on the ridges; broken overcast with sunny
periods. Why this slope was weaker is speculative right now; we will
know more after fieldwork tomorrow.
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