Submitted by: velocity
| Location: | SF Baldy NE |
| Date: | Apr 11, 2009 | Temp (C): | |
| Wind Speed: | Wind Direction: |
Saturday in the Sangre de Cristo backcountry…(cross posted to telemarktips.com)
David and I set out early on the Windsor Trail with the objective of skiing chutes on the east side of Santa Fe Baldy. This is a fairly long, but non-technical approach, though the chutes themselves exceed 40 degrees and are not lightly undertaken. Our biggest worry was the very thin snowpack we have this year, especially on the southern aspects, and we planned for a long dry approach.
The first adventure of the day occurred on our 5am drive up to the ski basin. We were happy to encounter 4 or 5 inches of fresh snow accumulating on the road, but a little apprehensive about the capabilities of my old Accord, as we were well ahead of any snowplows at this hour. We came to a spinning halt on a steeper pitch at mile marker 12, so David hopped out into the storm and proceeded to dry hump the hood until we got enough purchase to get on our way. We were soon at the trailhead with a momentary break in the storm.
Instead of sun-baked spring, we had deep snow winter conditions. What would we find in the chutes? As we got closer to the summit we discovered that he south face of Baldy was now a minefield of dusted boulders and we were hardly able to traverse to the south east ridge without destroying our skis. Any of the earlier snow pack that would have allowed piecing together a line was obscured by the windblown fresh. Once we got to the ridge we found hard pack that made vertical progress possible and there we saw some enticing lines down though wide trees. Foolishly, we proceeded on up toward our objective, which we were pretty sure would be steep, wind-loaded and obscured by the fog and snow that had now reached a somewhat arctic fierceness. When we reached the first big chute at around 12,400’, we made a single ski cut across the gorgeous deadly line and bailed. Nothing slid, but we went back to the tree shot and out of the wind without further hesitation…
Our powder path through the trees was steep but friendly and now our only concern was getting back to the car in time for me to comply with the conditions of the new baby plus toddler Hall Pass I had been issued for the day. Weather, Terrain and Human Triggers were one thing, but an angry spouse was a hazard I was not willing to confront. We chose a forested rib beneath protective rock outcroppings to lessen any exposure regaining the ridge. As we booted up we began to break through the 20-30 cm of powder and the melt freeze crust underneath, making progress slower and slower. Suddenly I punched through to my neck, boots dangling in air and depth hoar. Just as David calmly said ” Hugh, avalanche.”
Since it is me writing this in the first person and not some misinformed reporter, you can surmise that I did not meet my end there in my single-serving, neck-deep terrain trap. It was too fast to be scary and, no, the Avalung on my chest, despite the hundreds of Easter pilgrims making there way to Chimayo six thousand feet below us, did not miraculously leap into my mouth. The volume of snow released directly above us proved to be small enough that we were neither buried nor swept into bone crushing, aorta ripping evergreens. It passed over me like a powerful wave and left us where we were. Then we noticed that the slide we triggered from the “safe” zone had propagated laterally through soft wind slab for hundreds of feet in each direction and released all three nearby gullies nearly up to the ridge. Crown fractures, on the house! Now we were really glad we had not skied the big chute. We weren’t pussies, we were alive. The meadow-skipping return to the car through low angle powder was beautiful and uneventful.
Observations? These could become lessons after some thought…
-We were unable to dig a test pit in a meaningful location for the big chute without exposing ourselves directly to any hazard we hoped to avoid.
-We observed windloading and concluded that the big chute was too hazardous. We almost skied it out of powderlust, but I was feeling unsteady and both of us had a sense that things were not right.
-Our chosen descent line was forested, but still at a prime slope angle for release. We created sloughs as we descended on slopes between 30 and 40 degrees.
-The wind deposited powder was, as we suspected, a soft slab, at least in some locations.
-Crown fractures varied from 20 to 40 cm
-Our proximity to outcrops and cliffs protected us by limiting the volume of snow above, but that same snow/rock interface may have been a weak point that allowed use to trigger the slide in the first place.
-The trees appeared to provide some stability but did not prevent propagation of the slide.
-The convexity of the area adjacent to where I punched through was supporting the steeper soft slabs in the gullies above.
-Our safe line wasn’t really that safe and actually created a hazard that affected the entire area around us.
-A deeper slab could have been lethal. If the slab had been deeper, it could have buried us both, as we were just a few feet apart on the boot track. We had carefully skied one at a time on separate lines, watching for any trouble, but we were lulled by the apparent safety of our bootout line into traveling together.
-Avalanche education and experience probably shielded us from even worse decisions we could have made.
-By ski movie definitions, these slides might be considered sloughs, but they behaved like avalanches, and given terrain traps, could have been of consequence.
