Snowboarder ‘swam’ through avalanche slide in Utah. Why it might have saved his life
A snowboarder rode an avalanche slide to safety in Utah by “swimming” through the debris to keep himself from getting buried.
And his helmet camera captured the perilous ride on video as he traveled the length of a football field in Big Cottonwood Canyon.
Blake Nielson submitted a detailed report that included the video to the Utah Avalanche Center.
He said they dropped into Greaseball Couloir just north of the summit of Kessler Peak on Sunday, Jan. 8 and planned to ride out Argenta.
Nielson and his group tested the slope’s stability at multiple stops along the way up the mountain, and believed it would hold despite some strong wind gusts, according to his report.
But it was the wind drifted snow that ultimately created conditions for the avalanche, he wrote.
‘I’m staying on top, but I’m sliding’
The video starts with him boarding back and forth down a narrow crevice, called a “hanging bowl” in the report. About 10 seconds in, the avalanche slide swallows up his board and legs.
He radios his buddy to notify that he’s sliding. “I’m staying on top, but I am sliding,” he bellows.
The video shows him “swimming” through the slide using his arms, which keeps him on top of the debris.
In the report, Nielson explained that after he made a heel side turn, “an isolated wind slab broke loose below and above me which knocked me off my feet and took me for a ride.”
“I made swimming motions with my arms and kicked my board to help keep me on top,” he wrote. “After about 300 feet, I was able to slow down and stop, while the rest of the debris released below me.”
He said the slope slid about 1,300 feet.
Multiple Youtube users commented that he was lucky to be alive. Someone also pointed out how informed Nielson was, and suggested that’s what actually saved him.
“I don’t see a lot of luck there, looks to me like you know what you’re doing and were able to keep your head in the game,” the comment states. “Very well done.”
‘Lesson learned’ he said after the avalanche ride
At the end of the report, he included a section where he detailed mistakes he’d made and what he’d learned from the experience.
“Respect the wind,” he wrote. “Even a small ‘manageable’ wind pocket can break and carry you a long way in steep terrain with long runouts.”
He also described how serious cross-loading was, which is when wind blows snow across a slope and deposits drifts on either sides of gullies and chutes or other terrain features, according to an encyclopedia entry on avalanche.org.
“I had read the avy forecast and knew that wind was a problem, but I did not anticipate cross-loading to be as obvious as a problem, as this is less common in the Wasatch,” he wrote, referring to the Wasatch Mountain Range in the western United States that runs about 160 miles from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah.
“Lesson learned,” he said.
Nielson said in the future he would make a ski cut, which is “an intentional attempt by a skier, snowboarder, or snowmobiler to safely trigger a small avalanche,” according to avalanche.ca.
“I think I could have mitigated some hazard had I made a ski cut before dropping onto the hanging snow field,” he wrote.
This story was originally published January 11, 2023 at 4:13 PM with the headline "Snowboarder ‘swam’ through avalanche slide in Utah. Why it might have saved his life."
