Saturday morning, April 21, 2012, I was skiing in Woodchuck Basin.

At about 10:30, I heard a great roar. I looked around and saw that some large snow blocks (“rollers”) had fallen off of the rocks at the top of the ridge. This avalanche was naturally triggered.

I had passed below that spot 15 minutes previous. For safety, I had gone down and considerbly out of the way as I passed that point. The avalanche prediction for the day was “considerable” for steep aspects receiving a lot of sun. Exactly where this snow let go. A picture is here.

Clearly, this a reminder that backcountry skiing has its dangers.

Just above 8,000 feet, there was some decent corn at 10AM. But 400 feet down, it was deep mush.

Thank you to the Sierra Avalanche Center for their daily advisory. Following the advisory probably kept me out of danger. If you ski in the Sierra’s, may I suggest that you donate? I have.

cheers

/brook