Observer Name
Patrick Callahan, Julian
Observation Date
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Avalanche Date
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Little Pine
Location Name or Route
Little Pine
Elevation
10,200'
Aspect
South
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Depth
Unknown
Width
40'
Vertical
2,000'
Comments
My partner and I started up little pine couloir at around 8:45 AM. The apron was wind scoured and icy, but we decided the snow may be better inside of the couloir so we continued up. The snow seemed right side up and we were not observing significant red flags. We both noted a thin wind slab 1"- 3" that existed in isolated spots that we deemed manageable. About 1000 ft up the couloir the sun started peeking out and my partner observed that it felt pretty warm, but I wasn't concerned about the temperature and I expressed that and we kept moving.
About 1800 ft. up the couloir I noticed snow moving towards us, relatively slowly, and we moved off to the side. My partner and I wrote this off as "just a small amount of sluff" as we both agreed that it may not have even knocked us off our feet and ran only about 150 feet. We decided to keep moving up the couloir.
We continued up the couloir for roughly another 400-500 feet when I saw a cloud of snow moving towards us from the ridgeline. I knew this avalanche was significantly bigger and we quickly moved to the nearest relative safe zone. Within 10-15 seconds the avalanche ripped past us with some significant speed. My partner and I were both able to avoid being caught in the slide but we were both only about an arms length away from getting caught. We aren't certain where the avalanche actually broke above us and we also can only speculate what caused the avalanche. Our best estimate is that the avalanche ran 1500 - 2000 feet and ran almost the entire width of the narrower section of the couloir.
We bailed after this near miss and debriefed at Alpha. Some of our takeaways were:
1. Bigger lines and exposure going straight up couloirs have inherent risk.
2. The multitude of aspects in the upper section of the line increased the likeliness of an avalanche.
3. Warming temperatures and small amounts of sun can quickly effect stability.
4. One's personal risk tolerance should be regularly be discussed and reevaluated with trusted partners and friends because why the heck not.
Coordinates