Getting Away With It on Twin

 

On Saturday 3/27/21 I had an excellent day linking a pair of lines on Twin: the E Face, which I had rode the previous year, and the NW Couloir, which was new to me. 

Based on the day's conditions, this was a daring day of backcountry skiing. I've learned a lot from this outing and have since dialed it back. Much of the details about our decision-making are relayed in this observation I submitted to UAC. For the sake of brevity, I will refrain from reiterating what I've already stated in that observation. Read that if you want some more context. 

Anyway... Early in the tour we noticed wind-loading on the E Face from the W-SW while skinning up the drainage. I expressed concerns, and my partner and I agreed that we would continue to reassess the situation as we neared Twin.

Under the E Face we deliberated between booting the face directly or ascending via the south ridge. I suggested booting the E Face because it was fast and I had done so last season. This was the 'Familiarity' in FACETS in motion. Just because I had booted the E Face without hiccup last season does not mean that it would be good to go on this day. This was poor judgment on my behalf and I am glad we did not choose this option. 

Photo by Lane

As we gained Twin's south ridge, we noticed a wind slab crown about 10-15' wide and 8-10" deep. We booted the bed surface, gained the ridge, and got into ridgeline mode. 

The first thing we noticed on the South Ridge was a wind slab avalanche on the SW bowl below the party before us' (Party #1) bootpack. It didn't seem very big, but little did we know it caught and carried a member of Party #1. Again, we followed in the footsteps of Party #1 and continued on toward the summit.

While on the summit crest, we watched Party #1 ski the E Face and kick off multiple small wind slabs. They successfully descended the line without getting knocked off of their feet. Since we had planned to ski the E Face, we took this is a good sign, but I think FACETS was at play again in the form of 'Acceptance,' 'Commitment or Consistency,' and 'Social Proof.' 

At the top of the E Face, each of us made hard ski cuts and kicked off a small pocket of windslab apiece. At this point, we felt that we had properly flushed our line, but continued to ski very conservatively and in short pitches. The descent was a sharky base-scraping mess, and the only quality turns were found on the finishing apron. 

A sharky E Face

Photo by Lane

At this point, we were motivated to get on top of Twin again and check out the elusive NW Couloir. There was no more wind at this point, so I thought that any potential damage had already been done. 

We decided to ski the NW Couloir from Twin's west summit. The walk-ski mode mechanism on my Sportivas froze (not the first time this happened) and we spent a bit longer than I would have liked on top of the summit warming them up.

I traversed across the entrance to the NW Couloir and kicked off a wide but shallow wind slab, which flushed down into the couloir. This would be the last wind slab we would kick off that day.

Contemplating the NW Couloir

Lane in the NW couloir's narrower section

Exceptionally fine snow quality 

photo by Lane

Our original plan was to boot out of the north fork of Deaf Smith and finish the day on Stairs Gulch. With the day's heat and dicey conditions, we decided against this and took our chances in the mysterious north fork of Deaf Smith.

About as aesthetic as it gets. The NW Couloir is right up there with the greats

Looking down the N Fork of Deaf Smith and into Salt Lake Valley 

Wet loose turned into dense early spring snow turned into schmoo turned into heavy isothermic mush. It wasn't before long until the dry patches of slide alder outnumbered the snow, and we were off our skis negotiating waterfalls and chossy quartzite ledges. The N Fork of Deaf Smith is a doozy. 

Luckily, my partner practically lives at the base of Deaf Smith, and he received some local beta on how to avoid trespassing at the canyon mouth.

After an elapsed 11 hours on the go, we were back at my partner's house waiting for Libby to shuttle us back to our cars at the S-Curves in BCC.

Thoughts:

- We made A LOT of decisions this day, and I think we got away with some of them. Particularly, we were lucky to arrive at the south ridge after Party #1. If we arrived first, I think we would have gone forward with the bootpack up the ridge. In that case we might have been the group to trigger the wind slab and the consequences could have been much worse for us. It's so hard to say whether this would be the case, which brings me to my next point...

- The attitude I employed on this day is inconsistent with the attitude that I would like to employ every time I go out into consequential avalanche terrain. I like to think that my overall strategy in the mountains leans toward conservative decision-making with an eye on the long game rather than the pursuit of short-term rewards. (This is a rough interpretation of a chart I saw in 'Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain,' but bear with me) If we travel in avalanche terrain every day for 100 days, we need to make the right decisions 99.99% of the time if we want to survive a lifetime of skiing in avalanche terrain. I am certain that I lack both the knowledge or experience to make the right decision 99.99% of the time, and thus I must turn around or choose safer alternatives when faced with uncertainty. The odds aren't in my favor otherwise. 

- E Face ALPTRUTH: Avalanches? Yes; Loading? Yes, wind; Path? Yep; Terrain Trap? Yes; Rating? Low; Unstable Snow? Yes; Thawing? No. Five of the factors were present, so the odds were not in our favor here. 

- NW Couloir ALPTRUTH: Avalanches? None observed; Loading? Yes, at the top; Path? Yep; Terrain Trap? Yes; Rating? Low; Unstable Snow? Yes at the top, no lower in the couloir; Thawing? No. This one is less clear cut. It seems we were right on the cusp. In any event, decisions made on the cusp are not the ones that increase your chances of surviving in the backcountry. 

- I think we were both motivated for a big day on Twin, and that certainly affected our decision-making. It would have taken more than just some shallow wind slabs to get us to turn around. But like Noah Howell said, high motivation gets parties in trouble. Indeed, a shallow wind slab carried someone off of their feet that day, so conditions were not as 'manageable' as we perceived.