Avalanche
On March 16, a natural avalanche occurred in the Terminal Cancer Couloir, Nevada, carrying two people and partially burying one. The slide, triggered by wind-drifted snow and cornice failure, involved three experienced skiers, partially burying one and sweeping another over cliffs. All survived without significant injuries.
The avalanche happened at 9:15 a.m. at an elevation of 8,600 feet on a north-facing slope. It measured two feet deep, 150 feet wide, and traveled 1,000 vertical feet. Sustained winds of 30 mph over the preceding 12 hours had loaded the couloir with unstable snow, creating hazardous conditions that were overlooked despite visible red flags.
The report below was sent by a person identified only as ‘Fern’ to the Utah Avalanche Center, who has shared it as a learning opportunity for others, despite it not being their zone. Thank you to Fern for sharing this brutally honest account published verbatim below:
“Objective was to ski terminal cancer couloir in the Ruby mountains, I know it’s not UT but wanted to share our experiences to the community. Sunday morning at the TH we watched significant snow transport on ridges in all directions. Winds were probably sustained 30mph in most places at least for 12 plus hours. I voiced that I didn’t want to ski with the winds and conditions, but our buddy talked to another party who skied it yesterday and was sending this morning and said it was stable. My little voice had been going OFF all morning. Wind transport , cornices…. (But I didn’t listen today).
After some discussion we decided to approach. Our thought process was with colder temps and mostly wind scoured slopes on most aspects- a natural avalanche/cornice break was probably not as likely. (Trying to outsmart the obvious ).We got to the base and let the other party summit and ski down before getting into the couloir. About 915 at this point. We sent it to the base of the couloir quickly, and discussed potential hangfire. I was SO panicked for some reason. The wind, the cornices it just didn’t feel right. I just didn’t feel comfortable but didn’t voice it enough and everyone was booting up the couloir. We went hastily through the section we considered ‘hangfire’ which was the lower part of the couloir with snow fields getting continuously loaded above us and large cornices. We went about 200 more feet and for some reason I decided to make sure my beacon was on (why? I don’t know. We checked them at the base but I just had a bad feeling something was going to happen and wanted to make sure it was on) 2 minutes later my boyfriend yelled ‘SLIDE!!!’ And I looked up and saw the largest powder cloud. I’ll never ever forget it. I thought I was going to die, flushed down the couloir over cliffs, this is it.
Jared and Alex were both above me, I was below. I immediately ditched my pack (worried about my skis on my pack bringing me deeper in an avalanche if caught) and I found a small crevasse in some rock wall in the couloir and dug my way into it as best I could and shoved my legs in . I had 20 seconds, then came the wall of snow. So much snow. I was buried to my neck. I kept my arms up so hopefully one of my arms would stay out and it did. The snow stopped moving but it was a river for what felt like hours. I was stuck buried to my neck could barely breathe from snow compression on my chest , but my head wasn’t buried and had one arm out . Started to dig myself out. I yelled I’m ok and Jared ran down to help. He started to dig me out and I said ‘WATCH FOR HANGFIRE’ and he looked up just in time as another larger slide came down on us. He tucked into the rock structure I was in and protected me from getting further buried. After it stopped, we were able to dig me out and figure out what happened to Alex who was above us.
Immediately went into search mode on beacon. No signal. Jared’s pack and all his gear were gone. He decided to run down the couloir to search for Alex as I quickly transitioned and joined. I skied the avy debris and got no signal, turns out ALL of us where in search mode so no one got signals. I got the top of the apron and saw Jared and Alex together at the very bottom of the apron and Dave who wasn’t caught was skiing behind me. Alex lost his board, his backpack was ripped off, he was flushed through the couloir and carried over cliffs, total of 1000 feet and landed on top with no significant injuries. Somehow, we all survived and walked away.
The avalanche was maybe D2, appeared to be cornice fall from active wind loading that trigger a wind slab, that sympathetically triggered another slope , avalanche debris was 5-10 feet deep. Not sure of exact details.
Take aways:
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- Listen to your little voice. Mine was screaming today and I didn’t listen. We saw red flags (recent avalanches, wind loading) and just tried to outsmart them and human factors played a huge part, I knew we shouldn’t have been there in my gut and should have spoken up. Speak up.
- Don’t ignore red flags in avalanche terrain.
- Group dynamics. Be confident in your partners and listen to their thoughts, have lots of discussions.
- Actual avalanche incidents can be chaotic. A mess. Half of us lost all of our gear and didn’t even have shovels to dig as packs were ripped off. Be prepared for any and situation if you plan on skiing avalanche terrain.
We are all very experienced backcountry skiers. We got lucky today. How many of the lines have we skied thinking we made good decisions when in fact we just got lucky?.
Be more prepared than you are now. Have ALL your rescue gear accessible fast and be prepared for quick transitions. For example, having to take my crampons off, get my skis off my pack and put them on quickly in a couloir took valuable minutes while my bestfriend/partner/loved one was potentially buried below. Little things like that I’d never think about until in that horrible situation myself.
I had to call my family and tell them what happened. Think about those you love and how our decisions affect everyone, it’s hard. Really hard to break that news and I never want to do that again. We all make mistakes. Important for us to share with our community so we can learn.”
– Fern, via the Utah Avalanche Center
Terminal Cancer Couloir is a renowned ski line near Elko in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada. The north-facing couloir, topping at 9,570 feet, is known for its narrow, aesthetic shape and relatively easy access. It has gained popularity among backcountry skiers and is featured in the “50 Classic Ski Descents of North America” book. The couloir offers about 1,800 vertical feet of skiing with an average pitch of 37 degrees, making it a challenging yet achievable goal.
