A snowboarder gets caught in an avalanche on Haiyaha Couloir.
A group of snowboarders and a skier were involved in a human-triggered avalanche Saturday in Colorado’s Haiyaha Couloir, a short chute that drops into Lake Haiyaha in Rocky Mountain National Park. Footage of the slide went viral over the weekend, showing one snowboarder swept away before eventually grabbing a tree in his path and dislocating his shoulder.
“We entered this terrain planning to ski cut. We saw cracking while booting to our objective, redirecting the path around slabby areas. We ski cut the upper chute. The wind slab we triggered cleared the upper chute and skier’s left of the lower run. The ski cutter entered an island of safety midway, stopping above the uncleared snow. The 2nd rider stopped below the first,” reads the accident summary reported to the Colorado Avalanche and Information Center (CAIC). “The 3rd leapfrogged, entering the untouched slope, with the speed from the upper chute. It cracked above him with an eight to 14-inch crown. It caught, carried, and briefly buried him. He grabbed a tree, dislocated his shoulder, and ended up on the surface. As the other two dropped to help, the upper skier triggered the remaining hangfire, which carried the lower rider. The slide stopped after 10-15 feet. Shoulder relocated, descended the rest of the way to Haiyaha, ascended Dream Ridge, and shredded out the dream chutes. Spirits were high, we were happy to be at the trailhead; a beer was drank, and we talked about our experience after.”
The CAIC praised the group for sharing their footage and their descriptive report. The organization acknowledged the group for providing a lesson other backcountry skiers and snowboarders could learn from, as well as pointing out that we all make mistakes.
“We all benefit when people share information about their incidents so that we can learn from them. Many factors contribute to avalanche accidents, and there are key takeaways we can all glean from reading these reports and studying those factors. We ALL make mistakes,” CAIC wrote.
