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Avalanche: Bonkers

Observer Name
Stegmaier
Observation Date
Monday, March 25, 2024
Avalanche Date
Monday, March 25, 2024
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Broads Fork » Bonkers
Location Name or Route
Bonkers
Elevation
10,200'
Aspect
Northeast
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Unintentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Depth
12"
Width
200'
Vertical
400'
Caught
1
Carried
1
Comments
Party of two traveled up Broads this AM to ski bonkers. We found the previous day's skin track had been mostly filled back in by overnight snow and wind. We were treated to a relatively calm morning with patches of sun coming through on the skin up. We noted a small (D1) avalanche that had failed on the density change sometime on Sunday 3/24 but until we reached the ridge separating Bonkers from Stairs we saw no signs of instability. Upon reaching the ridge we decided to push up a bit higher to the small peaklet skiers right of the main bonkers line. As we climbed this ridge we started to see some cracking of soft wind slabs and decided to descend from this point.
On the second lap, we thought we could avoid the wind slab problem by sticking closer to the ridge and were able to gain the summit of the peaklet with minor cracking. As we prepared to descend we lost most visibility which necessitated skiing the line in short pitches to keep eyes on each other. Within a 50 feet of the summit Skier 2 triggered a small (D1) avalanche and was carried approx 10ft but stayed upright and avoided being carried fully down slope. We decided to ski down closer to the skin track we had set in hopes of avoiding what appeared to be an isolated wind slab problem near the peak. On the next short pitch, a hundred feet lower, Skier 1 triggered a second, larger avalanche which propagated approximately 200 feet and ran at least 400 feet - estimated at D2.5. Photos were difficult to capture due to white out conditions. We skied the bed surface into the lower angle terrain and enjoyed the remaining 1500ft of skiing.
Coordinates