Avalanche: Girdwood

bootpacker was bootpacking up a west-facing couloir on Nagoon. the center line of the couloir had a decent amount of debris from natural slides. about a quarter of the way up the debris pile whumphed pretty ominously. first thought: “whumphing debris? inconceivable.” ideal second thought: “something is happening here which i do not understand, time to go home.” actual second thought: “let the debris whumph, it’s not going to slide again.” bootpacker continued bootpacking. about halfway up the entire gut of the couloir broke eight-ish inches deep twenty feet above him. he was swept about two hundred feet, but was able to swim to the side and self-arrest. the slide continued another four hundred feet; the new debris was about fifty yards wide and one to two feet deep. the aspect, the depth of the crown, and the fact that the initial fracture was in the gut makes it seem possible and perhaps likely that the slide broke in snow put down by the mini-storm of the night of 2/26.