Avalanche near TJ Bowl
Pictured: Monday’s slide/
Midday on Monday morning, 3 backcountry enthusiasts had a close encounter with Mother Nature. The 2 skiers and 1 splitboarder were ascending a slope just east of TJ Bowl when they inadvertently triggered an avalanche that broke loose from the crown of the slope and barreled down 600 vertical feet, according to the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center (ESAC) report. The slide was visible from Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, where an MMSA Patroller viewed it and called it in to ESAC forecaster Sue Burak. “He watched it happen,” she said. “He couldn’t tell if there was someone buried.”
As it turns out, all 3 in the party escaped unscathed. They had enough time to get out of the way of the slide, Burak said, as it began some 200 feet above them. “They were just really, really lucky,” she said. “It was a sizeable slide, and they certainly would have been swept away and tumbled, had they been caught.” Burak’s Tuesday on-site investigation revealed avalanche debris deep enough to bury a car.
Burak explained the instability of the snowpack prior to the group’s ascent, noting that last week’s snowfall settled into a 12-24 inch soft slab that overlaid the weak-faceted snow formed during an extended January and early February drought. “When you get that new snow on top, it tends to make the under layer more reactive,” she said. “These folks just happened to hit the wrong spot, what we call the ‘sweet spot,’ on the slope to trigger the avalanche.”
She cautioned that, with this winter’s “rollercoaster ride” of cold snaps and bluebird spring days, the unstable snowpack could persist until the end of the season. Her advice for this coming week: stay out from under steep, sunny slopes that receive direct sun. Skiers and riders on north-facing steep slopes under the Mammoth Crest should probe, taking a few minutes to dig and look at the weak snow under the dry snow they plan to ski.
“The snowpack responds to everything,” Burak said. “That’s what makes it really interesting, and that’s also what makes it so hard to predict.”
(Photo: Burak)
