Avalanche Expert Explains the Snowboarding Avalanche Video

By now, you may have seen that heart-thumping video of three snowboarders who triggered an avalanche while shredding down a steep couloir in Rocky Mountain National Park. The video is all over Instagram, and has racked up more than 3 million views.

The slide occurred on January 10 at Haiyaha Couloir, a steep gully in the park that is popular with backcountry skiers and snowboarders. Filmed from the point of view of one of the snowboarders, the clip shows an avalanche first sweeping up a snowboarder located lower on the slope. The slide catches, carries, and briefly buries him.

“He grabbed a tree, dislocated his shoulder, and ended up on the surface,” read the group’s accident report, which was published by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC), the group that monitors avalanches in the state.

Back to the video. As the skier and snowboarder above their stricken friend start to descend, they trigger a second avalanche, and also plummet down the slope.

Everyone survived. According to the report, the snowboarder put his shoulder back in place before descending the rest of the way down their planned route.

“Spirits were high, we were happy to be at the trailhead; a beer was drank, and we talked about our experience after,” they wrote about the ordeal.

It’s a happy ending, but after watching the clip, I couldn’t help but wonder what went wrong. And could they have prevented the slides in the first place?

As I previously wrote, watching rescue videos can teach us important lessons about how we recreate in the outdoors. That’s why I reached out to Brian Lazar, CIAC deputy director, to better understand what’s happening in the avalanche clip. Lazar has been working in the mountains since the nineties. He told Outside that the avalanche was triggered in part by an error in group management, a mistake the snowboarders also acknowledged in their accident report.

Lazar provided Outside with an expert analysis of what happened in the video.

The Weather Forecast Warned of Avalanche Danger

In the days leading up to the avalanche, between two and five inches had fallen in the Rocky Mountain National Park area. Lazar says strong winds blew this new snow into gullies and depressions, depositing it onto older layers of snow. This layering of fresh, wind-drifted snow atop older snow can create wind-slab avalanches, which are typically observed in couloirs.

“The initial break was caused by one of the riders in the group. They were aware that they had stiffer wind-drifted snow because they saw cracking as they were ascending,” said Lazar.

In their accident report, the trio, who asked to remain anonymous, said they saw cracks appear in the snow layers as they bootpacked to their starting point. This dynamic is similar to stepping on a frozen puddle, when cracks shoot out from your footprint. Cracking is considered a warning sign of unstable snow.

“They thought they could get a lot of that snow to release below their skis, which you can see in the opening of the video. But because of the way they managed the group by leapfrogging, this exposed one person, who then ended up taking a ride into the trees,” said Lazar.

The CAIC’s avalanche forecast for that day specifically warned about wind-drifted snow on slopes similar to the one these three descended.

“Watching the video, you can see textbook wind slab behavior—this is a storm-snow instability,” he said.

An Intentional Avalanche Trigger that Didn’t Work

Before heading downhill, the snowboarders attempted to intentionally trigger a controlled avalanche to release unstable snow. This technique, sometimes called ski cutting, involves traversing across a slope to try and get unstable snow to slide down.

“In hindsight, it’s easier to see, but you always want to approach this idea of ski cutting with a great degree of humility. This is an expert technique often performed by snow safety professionals like ski patrol, but ski cutting can go wrong quite easily,” said Lazar.

Lazar said the skiers realized that wind-drifted slabs posed a danger at their location, but the way they did their ski cut exposed everyone to “hangfire,” unstable snow that remains above an avalanche’s starting point.

“In terrain like this, you want much tighter group management,” he added. “Also, because they noticed cracking on the way up, they had a clear sign of instability and could have avoided terrain features like this that collect wind-drifted snow.”

The Snowboarder Set Himself Up for Safety

When the avalanche caught the snowboarders, they acted appropriately to avoid a collision, Lazar said. The video shows the trio being swept downhill toward trees. Avalanches can travel up to 80 miles per hour, carrying anyone caught in their path downhill and directly into any standing obstacles. Around one-quarter of avalanche deaths are caused by trauma.

“The snowboarders did try to position themselves in such a way that their feet were downhill, so once they impact the trees, they’re less likely to sustain serious injury,” he said.”It’s certainly better to hit trees with your feet than your head. You can see them trying to get in the most favorable position since they could not get out of the moving debris.”

Learning Together From Past Mistakes

Despite their error, the group publicly shared their video and published their accident report in hopes of preventing similar situations in the future. Lazar said their openness in releasing the footage and discussing their experience could help others.

“It’s easy to keep this to yourself because you’re worried about being embarrassed or publicly shamed,” said Lazar. “And we want to encourage people to follow that example, because the more information we get, the better forecasts we can create.

Cold trailhead beers are well-deserved.

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