Developing an eye for Terrain Rating
How would you rate this slope? Simple, Challenging, or Complex?
What is your reasoning?
Remember, don’t factor in the snow cover.
Only consider the configuration of the terrain.
Scott Lindstrom snapped these shots of a recent slab avalanche while sledding at Lucille, near McBride, BC on February 17, 2008.
The runout zone is quite open, however the slope angle does make a bit of a quick transition close to the bottom of the track. This could lead to a deeper burial if a person were to get trapped near this point. Also, there are a few trees and a couple of rocks to contend with in the avalanche track.
There are definitely hills with way higher consequences out there. This is a good example of ‘Challenging Terrain’ as rated by the AVALUATOR.
For a quick refresher on the CAC terrain ratings CLICK HERE
A lot of speculation happening I suppose, but from my armchair I wonder if it is possible that this avalanche was initiated near the buried trees on the left side of the photo. Perhaps this shallow failure propagated across the slope. On the right hand side it looks like the bed surface is uneven. Perhaps the motion of the initial slide became a trigger for this avalanche to step down to the deeper layer. It was very lucky that the crown line didn’t propagate further. The hazard would have been much greater.
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