Natural cornice fall nearly missed skiers, near Abiathar

Abiathar Peak
Out of Advisory Area
Code
C-N-R2-D2
Elevation
9500
Aspect
N
Latitude
44.97560
Longitude
-110.03100
Notes

From email: "My partners and I were booting up a couloir near abiathar and a large cornice fell and landed shortly below us in our bootpack. Spooked the hell out of us. We acknowledged the danger of those cornices before booting up, decided that it was probably safe due to relatively low winds and cool temps, and decided to go for it. In hindsight, we wonder if it was much warmer on the ridge near the cornice (we were in the shade), maybe we underestimated the ridgetop winds, or maybe we just got unlucky.

The cornice broke up a bit on some rocks before landing in our couloir, but there still vehicle sized chunks raining down. If we had been 5 minutes slower on the ascent we may have been killed."

Number of slides
1
Number caught
0
Number buried
0
Avalanche Type
Cornice fall
Trigger
Natural trigger
R size
2
D size
2
Problem Type
Cornice Fall
Slab Thickness units
centimeters
Single / Multiple / Red Flag
Single Avalanche
Advisory Year