On Monday I found myself dropping into Bullion Basin and found myself caught in a small avalanche. I intending on doing a ski cut than heading for the trees on the left hand side to see if it moved. Well…things didn’t go as planned and as I was traversing towards the trees I saw the snow slab. Within a split second the snow was all around me and take me for a 400 foot ride and taking a ride in an avalanche. This is the build up to the trip.

For a full understanding of the situation this trip report is quite detailed.

A Brief Introduction to the Situation

Over the past 3 months my mom had been housing a friend of mine as a Japanese Exchange student. She was there to learn English. Since I had met her at a ski resort I wanted to show her the beauty of the Cascade Range. After a post on Facebook Anya was kind enough to loan her some skis and boots. We had the gear to take her touring.

I’ve learned over the years that it’s just not acceptable to take a first time ski tourer on a long or hard day. With that in mind we made plans to take her to Crystal Mountains Silver Basin. From there we would ride some nice low angle trees followed by a groomer exit. Once we arrived at Crystal we stopped by the Patrol shack. One of the Patrollers said they were bombing the Resort backcountry. No one was allowed to skin up there runs even though we would be a ways from the resort boundaries . We had to come up with a last minute new plan.

Heading up Bullion Basin

We decided a good plan B was Bullion Basin as the skin track would be up a summer hiking trail. It has minimal switchbacks and smaller slopes to ski down. We started skinning at 4,400 feet and it wasn’t until around 6,000 feet before the rain hardened snow lost its crust. We were back in powder conditions. It was important to me to show her some good Cascadian snow and we were happy to see a switch. Along the way we kept probing the snow but things felt stable. We put switch backs in steeper areas and nothing moved. It was building our confidence along the way.

Before long we made it into the Northwest bowl of Bullion Basin. There was another crew breaking trail up to the ridge. In the past we had skinned the flats until skinning up the denser trees on the right but they had put in a skin track across the lower slopes. After a quick “We usually go this way” we were following the  two people in front of us.

Assessing the Situation on the Ridge of Bullion Basin

On the ridge the other group was transitioning and preparing to ski a nice semi open slope. We decided to go a bit higher on the ridge checking out a few other lines along the way. As we skinned up in cloudy but not windy conditions we went by 3 runs. I didn’t like them as the snow still hadn’t buried the trees lower on the slope. If there was a potential slide the last thing I wanted was for someone to slam into the trees and hurt themselves. I chose instead the more open line right next to the top. I was excited to see her first turns in the Cascades. After we chatted back and forth it was decided that I would ski cut the slope making sure it was safe. After that both Andres and Miwa would descend.

Getting Caught in a Slab Avalanche in Bullion Basin

The plan was I would take a few turns than doing a traverse above the convex and into the trees. From there I would be safe and I could see them ride from top to bottom. I dropped in and made four turns in amazing snow and started a hard traverse towards the trees. Immediately I saw the snow surround me slab off. Quickly realized I was going to be taken for a ride.

Taking a Ride Down in an Avalanche

The snow started moving slow and I remember seeing a branch and grabbing at it as I passed it. The weight was too strong and I realized my one chance of getting out was now gone. I would have to change my strategy. Immediately I thought about semi buried trees and lifted the nose of my board causing it to slowly move right. I was now heading down the slope in a heelside position.

There were a few trees with the top few inches sticking out so prepared for the potential of hitting a tree staying on my heelside. I also kept my knees slightly bent in case there was an impact. After a few seconds I hit a tree with enough force to put me on my stomach going head first. I knew that A if I hit another tree it would be with my head and B if I was in this position when the snow stopped moving I would be buried. I fought hard and was able to get back onto my heelside edge for the final few seconds. Finally I stopped a few feet above the skin track buried to my thighs with snow that hardened in seconds.

And the Snow Settles into Concrete

At that time the other group was skinning back up Bullion Basin. They were only seconds from the now buried section of the skin track. When I stopped I immediately shouted that I was okay to both my group and the group below. Making sure they heard me and a guy from the second group was kind enough to help shovel me out. I was still connected to the board. We chatted for a few minutes and actually had a quick discussion over the conditions above.

After a few minutes Andres and Miwa (Exchange Student) made there way to the bottom. From there we had a quick chat. Andres said that the snow broke on my 5th turn. It had produced a 2 foot deep slap that had cracked a long ways but only went in the gully that I was in. He decided it was safer to go down in the trees with Miwa going one tree at a time. He didn’t want to send hangfire down on top of me.

Miwa was pretty exhausted so we had her hang out in a safe spot at the end of the bench. She had extra food and clothing as we skinned for another lap all the time within view of her. The second run we rode closer to the other groups tracks and found great snow. After riding back down to Miwa I hung out with her and Andres took a third lap. He was in view of us the whole time. Finally it was time to exited via horrible rain crust down the lower gully and back onto the skin track.

Looking Back at the Situation

At the time of the avalanche I brushed it off a bit. After a while it made me start to think about the what ifs….. What if this happened Saturday. There was hangfire and what if it went as well. What if I wasn’t able to get back onto my heal side edge. This was a slope that I had rode so many times and had built up confidence over the past few days. I really wanted to show her as good of a time as safely possible. In the end I made a mistake that was small but could have ended up much worse.

It’s a hard predicament as I have ski cut slopes successfully hundreds of times. This was the one time I had actually got caught in the middle of it. In some ways I had chose the terrain correctly with little exposure to trees and a flat bench at the bottom for the snow to disperse which is something I always do. I guess in the end what to be learned about this is a few things

A even if you do things hundreds of times and have a 1% chance of things going wrong that means things will go wrong when you ride 100 days a year B  Just because you have seen minimal movement of snowpack and you are in a mini-golf line you should never let your guard down C Don’t think that just because you are in a place that usually holds a maritime snowpack it isn’t always maritime and even though we had wet snow which usually bonds this time it didn’t.

Reflection on the What if’s

If you look at it all the flags were there. The avalanche forecast had been high for the past few days. If it was a casualty report you would see the same things that are usually mentioned in them. It was an experienced snowboarder in familiar terrain after a few days of riding and building confidence. Then the snow dragon got him.

I’m human and I’ve made a whole lot of mistakes over the years. It is through those mistakes that you actually learn a lot more. Like the time I burned my boot liners. You have an opportunity to share these experiences so others can learn from your mistakes. Would things have been different if we went with the original plan….Probably, but that’s not what happened.

I hope you found this informative . I constantly think “Why not me” when I hear of friends passing away in the Backcountry and this time it easily could have been me.

Lot’s of people had a great day out there in those conditions I just pushed it enough to get pushed back.