Thank you to the individual involved for sharing photos and following up with more details of the incident. A few more details in hindsight:
- The individual was carried for roughly 800 feet and was not buried. They attempted to deploy their airbag, but the backpack malfunctioned. It was an older pack and they replaced the backpack immediately following this incident.
- The group had skied similar terrain two days prior and observed dry loose avalanching (sluffs) but no slab activity. In hindsight, they believe Thursday's winds were the main contributing factor and the slab that failed was clearly a wind loaded slope.
- Two other people descended adjacent terrain without incident after this avalanche.
- The person who triggered the avalanche indicated the cold weather rushed their decision making. This led them to choose terrain they might have otherwise avoided if they hadn't been rushing to get out of the cold.
