Scary slide on Mt Superior

[telehacker]

https://snowbrains.com/wasatch-mts-u...uperior-today/

[SB]

that could have ended differently

[Vt-Freeheel]

"Dam, it's the end of my life!"

Certainly glad it wasn't.

[telehacker]

Just watching it and then hearing his word, sent chills down my spine. AMAZING recovery and yes i would of shit my pants and been crying at the same time.

[tgapp]

Wow. So glad this didn't end any differently.

For those of you who are more experienced/better skiers than I am (re: most of this crowd) - other than try to ski out of it (it looked like it broke a little above him?), what else could he have done? Try to arrest on the bed surface? Was getting in the backseat the right move?

Absolutely terrifying to watch.

[Mofro261]

Wow. So glad this didn't end any differently.

For those of you who are more experienced/better skiers than I am (re: most of this crowd) - other than try to ski out of it (it looked like it broke a little above him?), what else could he have done? Try to arrest on the bed surface? Was getting in the backseat the right move?

Absolutely terrifying to watch.

ski out asap or try to arrest on the bed surface are really the only options once it broke. Getting out off the back of the flow was the right call here.

[tgapp]

ski out asap or try to arrest on the bed surface are really the only options once it broke. Getting out off the back of the flow was the right call here.

Makes sense. I can only think of a few places in the Wasatch where a slide would be more terrifying (the top of Coalpit Headwall comes to mind). So glad he's okay.

[glademaster]

How was that video shot?

[abraham]

How was that video shot?

Looks like a 360 camera of some type.

[abraham]

Seems worth putting this in here from the Wasatch thread

Skied S face Superior via Turkey today. 9 am put in 11:30 am drop. Kept looking for reasons to turn around. Winds gusting 50+mph on Baldy being the biggest red flag.

Cardiff pass and Two Trees had fairly sensitive cornices. Stepping out to the cornice face produced small fractures and a couple that broke 4-6" deep, 20' wide and only ran 10' vertical. Winds calmed down and snow felt a little less wind affected as we got to the top. Ski cut the top at least five traverses worth before committing and dropping it.

Old slide observed mid slope. Must've been pretty spooky considering it showered over the rock band. Medium density snow that skied pretty well. A bit of bottom feeding on the old ice crust.

[swimmy]

Wonder if he chose not to deploy his airbag or just didn't think about it in the moment of panic?

[glademaster]

It doesn't look like he tried to trigger it, but he's also wearing his pole straps and kept his poles. IME (with a Jetforce trigger, which is a little different) it would be pretty hard to deploy it with a ski pole in your hand; it's certainly still possible to, but it is noticeably more difficult. After test deploying it bare-handed, in a ski glove, and with a wrist strap from a ski pole on, I pulled the straps off the poles I tour with.

That's cool about the camera. Video is pucker inducing for sure.

[jackstraw]

Looks like he could have gone switch right to the road and reverse hit Chad's gap...if he hadn't bailed. Pussy

[Boissal]

Makes sense. I can only think of a few places in the Wasatch where a slide would be more terrifying (the top of Coalpit Headwall comes to mind). So glad he's okay.

Scary high consequences places are a dime a dozen around here, especially now that people are willing to tickle big dragons who have barely settled for their naps... If you put a gun to my head I'd chose to take the ride down Coalpit which fans out in the flats rather that get lanched in a much smaller gully that will involve a 15' burial.

UAC obs are getting painful to read. The mixture of clunky technical lingo combined with post-hoc rationalization of poor decisions (I know I know, hindsight 20/20) is getting tedious.
If you're "familiar with the wind-drifted avalanche problem that had been presenting itself on Superior/Little over the last few days", you don't follow-up with "given the strength of the winds midday into the afternoon, it appears that sizable quantities of snow have been transported onto/across Superior's (upper) South Face, possibly magnifying the wind slab problem that was causing smaller, more isolated chunks to break free at upper elevations on this S/SE aspect".
A strong NW flow moving snow all day on a SE facing slope exacerbated a know wind-slab issue? You don't say...
We've all been in a situation where we under estimated the sketch factor and got spooked. No need to dress it up as a anything other than a dumb and fortunately inconsequential mistake.

[romeo tango]

It doesn't look like he tried to trigger it, but he's also wearing his pole straps .... I pulled the straps off the poles I tour with .... pucker inducing for sure.

old timers have repeatedly told me to take my hands out of the pole straps on the down....


.

[Core Shot]

https://snowbrains.com/wp-content/up...0130124411.jpg

Great pic.
Glad he survived

[Dshack89]

Looks like another one today...

https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche/51192

Sent from my SM-N970U using TGR Forums mobile app

[Norseman]

It doesn't look like he tried to trigger it, but he's also wearing his pole straps and kept his poles. IME (with a Jetforce trigger, which is a little different) it would be pretty hard to deploy it with a ski pole in your hand; it's certainly still possible to, but it is noticeably more difficult. After test deploying it bare-handed, in a ski glove, and with a wrist strap from a ski pole on, I pulled the straps off the poles I tour with.

That's cool about the camera. Video is pucker inducing for sure.

old timers have repeatedly told me to take my hands out of the pole straps on the down....


.

Thread drift...

I'm sans pole straps for a few years and not going back.

Started with the touring poles for the aforementioned quick ditch in unlucky scenarios... did the same with the inbounds poles for the same reason plus shoulder safety in the trees. It's nice to downgrip on traverses, too.