Two weeks ago we had rider triggered D3 avalanche with full burial

[tomx]

Two weeks ago while our crew was doing some snowmobile accessed snowboarding a member of our group triggered an avalanche in the Snoqualmie Pass, Washington backcountry that resulted in a full burial. We were able to successfully recover him without injury. The crew sat down a week later to review the footage from the incident and debrief on what went right and what went wrong.

Sharing this in the hope that others can benefit from our experience and empower other backcountry enthusiasts to make smart decisions. The video is chaptered on YouTube if you'd like to skip to the avalanche footage but I hope you grab some popcorn and take the time to watch it through.

 

[North]

Hey man thanks for posting. It's no small thing to expose your mistakes to criticism from the masses, and I think it's a great service to the backcountry community to put this vid out there.

Couple Q's:
1. Is Snoqualmie Pass in the "East Slopes Central" NWAC forecast zone? I'm not familiar with the area, and I'd like to read the forecast for the day of your incident.
2. What human factors do you think your crew was affected by on the day of the event?

RE Gear/Backpacks: I'd highly recommend a vest (I wear an airbag equipped Dakine Poacher) for sled-accessed riding. It fits tight to the body, and is just big enough for rescue gear + first aid kit + some knick knacks in the front pockets. The rest of my gear goes on the sled. Keeps the weight off my back, doesn't move around, and makes it a no-brainer to have my safety gear on always.

 

[North]

Edit: just poked around a bit and found the Snoqualmie Pass zone forecast

 

[Pinchecharlie]

Dang! Glad you guys knew what to do and your buddy got out un scathed! We lost two recently one was a principal of one of our schools. Both where trauma from trees. Glad you guys are reviewing and preparing. Amazing how many people run rivers with no life jackets! Well done and continue to be prepared!

 

[tomx]

Edit: just poked around a bit and found the Snoqualmie Pass zone forecast

This one: https://nwac.us/avalanche-forecast/#/east-slopes-central/95872

 

[simple]

Hale is obviously your elder in the group. Watching the video it is clear he is well respected. From an outside perspective he is the rookie when it comes to modern backcountry safety. The ways of the 80s/90s is gone. A lot of us survived those days without realizing the punk rock snowboard mentality was heavy on style and had almost zero risk assessment. Hale clearly still thinks this way and attributes survival to luck, some training, and thinking your time comes at some point. Most people grew out of that when they had kids. Not all of us did I get it.

The justification for riding with no gear is weak. Our crew, and just about all the crews we know (pro or not) ride with gear. Sometimes light but never without the essentials and some first aid.
Hearing Hale talk about days past in Alaska is a sure fire sign of an expert halo. E

Gman was a foot away from dying from a tree strike let alone the burial. That is luck but it also came from your whole crew being on that slope at same time. Thank goodness you did have someone watching. That is a behavior for a completely stable day which you obviously did not have. You cover the warning signs in the video but I may have skimmed over the justification of 3 riders on a slope like that. It was likely from terrain familiarity. T

The Avy 1 course has changed significantly in recent years. It really gets into the human factors now. Your crew may want to consider all going together to take it again. It is not a certification like stated multiple times in the video. Over confidence from elder riders has killed many people here in Colorado this year. Get to know what FACETS means so you don't fall into heuristic traps. You had E and T happen from what I can tell.

You don't have to change your risk tolerance but your video is going to be used, in at least my educational group, of an example of how human factors can catch even a solid group off guard. We are always learning.

Really really appreciate you sharing. The production is great and a debrief is essential to learning.

 

[tomx]

Hale is obviously your elder in the group. Watching the video it is clear he is well respected. From an outside perspective he is the rookie when it comes to modern backcountry safety. The ways of the 80s/90s is gone. A lot of us survived those days without realizing the punk rock snowboard mentality was heavy on style and had almost zero risk assessment. Hale clearly still thinks this way and attributes survival to luck, some training, and thinking your time comes at some point. Most people grew out of that when they had kids. Not all of us did I get it.

The justification for riding with no gear is weak. Our crew, and just about all the crews we know (pro or not) ride with gear. Sometimes light but never without the essentials and some first aid.
Hearing Hale talk about days past in Alaska is a sure fire sign of an expert halo. E

Gman was a foot away from dying from a tree strike let alone the burial. That is luck but it also came from your whole crew being on that slope at same time. Thank goodness you did have someone watching. That is a behavior for a completely stable day which you obviously did not have. You cover the warning signs in the video but I may have skimmed over the justification of 3 riders on a slope like that. It was likely from terrain familiarity. T

The Avy 1 course has changed significantly in recent years. It really gets into the human factors now. Your crew may want to consider all going together to take it again. It is not a certification like stated multiple times in the video. Over confidence from elder riders has killed many people here in Colorado this year. Get to know what FACETS means so you don't fall into heuristic traps. You had E and T happen from what I can tell.

You don't have to change your risk tolerance but your video is going to be used, in at least my educational group, of an example of how human factors can catch even a solid group off guard. We are always learning.

Really really appreciate you sharing. The production is great and a debrief is essential to learning.

Thanks so much for your constructive feedback. I definitely think we all have some expert halo going on for sure. I think the past few decades riding in a relatively stable terrain without major incidents has allowed us to develop some bad habits. Myself I'm pretty religious about having gear on. When I'm on a sled it's always on, just a no brainer as we are moving about terrain and I want everything in the event I need to dig my sled out, not to mention an avy incident.

Prior to this run we had been seasoning a short 2-300 foot jump line on a different aspect which is where the packs came off. This was that 'last run' that we obviously got complacent on. The crew has pulled a full 360, last weekend everyone came with a solution for full gear while in snowboard mode we had a lot of open discussion about conditions through out the day and kept it very mellow as conditions were considerable. I definitely think we have learned from this experience and I hope it can benefit others as well.

Let me know if you'd like original copy of the video, I'm happy to share it.

 

[simple]

Yeah my educational group noted that with your usual PNW snowpack it is easy to feel comfortable with stability. In Colorado we are on edge for months and sometimes never get stability as the spring season can turn into wet slide city. Climate change sucks in that regard. Fingers crossed we get to a stable snowpack soon.

Stoked and proud of your crew. We had a similar incident 7 years ago. Believe it or not some of my crew is getting complacent again and riding recklessly leaving the responsibility on us that are more diligent in safety. It sucks to kick people out of a crew but liabilities can mean death. Human factors are behind most accidents and it only takes a few compounded mistakes to create a disaster.

 

[Pinchecharlie]

Iam not really a pro but have been backcountry skiing for 30+ years. Only comment I was going to make is that every slide we have had recently has been with groups that made every wrong descion. 30°+ slopes, unstable conditions, no group spacing, bad transceivers/no transceivers/not turned on. No radios no plan b no nothing. Its so hard for me to be patient when iam looking at a good run. I have alot of experience in whitewater and its the same getting my crew to run saftey and space boats. All I can say is its easy to strap on a transceiver and pack the gear but when the shi$ hits the fan its truly challenging to get the job done with all the adrenaline and shock. Even though you missed a beat you did it all right under stress and thats hard hard to do. Sometimes too...you do everything right and shi$ still goes bad. I partnered up with sars officers two years ago in a river rescue course and got my ass kicked for two days in the river. Both these guys where young and strong and since they where law enforcement they pushed hard. A year later one them was killed in river accident. Just bad luck but the moral of the story is if you want to be completely safe...you can't go at all. So now you get the luxury of a re set that unfortunately others don't. Be interested to hear from more professional avalanche guys.