Avalanche: Turnagain

Location: Seattle creek headwall. Bowl south of -3

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Snowmachine headed up the Seattle creek head wall in the bowl south of -3. Made it to the top, turned around and headed down hill. About 50-75 yards later, large slab avalanche happened. Snowmachiner was separated from his snowmachine and completely buried. He was found within 15 minutes and was alive.

Contact, Location & General Observations
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Forecaster Comments

7 additional photos from another witness have been added. Here is the description that went with those photos.
" We had a really close call today at turnagain. 1 snowmachiner buried with only his hand exposed, sled is still not found. I believe the area is called Super Bowl or triangle Bowl. It's on the east side of headwall. Sled was climbing up the headwall like you would to access new world. After he almost reached the top he turned out and as soon as he started down it released and continued to propagate. He tried to outrun and was thrown after hitting exposed rock. Tried to deploy airbag but it did not deploy. There was 5 witnesses and we immediately started a beacon search and found his hand sticking out. He escaped with no injuries. Here are some pics. I estimate the crown at 4-6' and total width at 500' he slid about 800' down and was found at the toe of the slide on the uphill side of terrain trap. No location of sled."

CNFAIC are gathering additional details from this incident this weekend and will post them early next week.

Avalanche Details
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Trigger SnowmachinerRemote Trigger Unknown
Avalanche Type Hard SlabAspect North
ElevationunknownSlope Angleunknown
Crown DepthunknownWidthunknown
Vertical Rununknown  
Avalanche Details

Big debris. 1 snowmachiner buried with only his hand exposed, sled is still not found. I believe the area is called Super Bowl or triangle Bowl. It's on the east side of headwall. Sled was climbing up the headwall like you would to access new world. After he almost reached the top he turned out and as soon as he started down it released and continued to propagate. He tried to outrun and was thrown after hitting exposed rock. Tried to deploy airbag but it did not deploy.

Rescue events

There was 5 witnesses and we immediately started a beacon search and found his hand sticking out. He escaped with no injuries.

Red Flags
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Observer Comments

No red flags at all. There was actually existing snowmachine tracks and snowboard/ski tracks on the face.

Weather & Snow Characteristics
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Weather

Sunny. No new snow

Photos & Video
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