CAIC

CAIC: Colorado Avalanche Information Center

BC Zone Observation Report

Saturday, March 21, 2020 at 12:00 AM
Vail & Summit County

Details

Date: 2020/03/21

Observer: Kyle Ervin
Organization: Public

Location

BC Zone: Vail & Summit County
Area Description: Silver couloir on buffalo mountain. 35-40 degrees sustained pitch for 3,000 vertical feet.

Weather

Weather Description: Silver couloir: Buffalo Mountain. Few clouds, No precipitation, and light blowing snow out of the S-SW which was doing some cross loading in the North facing line. 12,777 ft elevation. New snow the day prior so there was snow available for transport.

Snowpack

Snowpack Description: Silver couloir: Buffalo Mountain. 12,777ft. North facing aspect. The new storm snow was reactive in areas especially in the north facing silver couloir. The interface that was buried by the new storm snow was very firm and slick. Perfect bed surface.

Avalanches

Avalanche Description: Silver couloir: Buffalo Mountain. 12,777ft. North facing aspect. Skier 1 dropped in first and headed for the y split between the skiers left and right arm of the silver couloir. As skier 1 stopped, he triggered a D1.5/R2 storm slab avalanche that ran about 1,500 feet past the choke and just onto the apron. Skier 1 was not caught and luckily it propagated below him. 6-8” crown.

Date

Location/Path

#

Elev

Asp

Type

Trig

SizeR

SizeD

View

2020/03/21 ^†

buffalo Mountain

1

>TL

N

SS

AS / u

R2

D1.5

Media

Images

<b>Figure 1:</b> Hard to tell from the picture but the debris ran along the skiers right side of the couloir. (<a href=javascript:void(0); onClick=win=window.open('https://caic-production.imgix.net/uguxbwidbhyumkfcqpk2qb83x5rf?ixlib=php-3.1.0&s=69010602092661df7d9006720fe3df86','caic_media','resizable=1,height=820,width=840,scrollbars=yes');win.focus();return false;>see full sized image</a>)

<b>Figure 2:</b> Hard to tell from the picture but the debris ran along the skiers right side of the couloir. (<a href=javascript:void(0); onClick=win=window.open('https://caic-production.imgix.net/r569u07ragjhip1c5pifskshh1vw?ixlib=php-3.1.0&s=dc06d8cbc2ea7b58938f760c08170418','caic_media','resizable=1,height=820,width=840,scrollbars=yes');win.focus();return false;>see full sized image</a>)