[Stefan]

Went off in the morning with several folks to do the north face glacier route of Sefrit. Joining me were Franklin, Martin, Dave, Eric, Carla and Matt. The route goes pretty well except for at the beginning when it is vine maple brush hell. Oh yeah, and you gotta cross Ruth creek. You park about 4.3 miles from the highway and you can see the beginning of the route. The route through "Wall Street" is actually a large gully - about 50 feet wide and would be quite a ski. Skiing higher in the glacier bowl would be fantastic too. This is actually a great route for climbing Sefrit. We switched leads noting the trees were dropping their snowballs here and there with some slough from the past couple of days. The glacier basin is beautiful and we headed for the 6520' foot col on the north ridge. The direct north couloir looked very tempting to me and I did think it would be safer, but the problem was way up high with a vertical wall of a cornice--that would have been difficult to surmount. We eventually went to the NE side to traverse around to the SE ridgeline. I did not have a good feeling, but I ignorned my own personal warning signs on this one. Icey layer below the snow with anywhere between a couple of inches to a couple of feet depending on how the snow was deposited with the wind from the past couple of days. I lead out on an even elevation on rope. Below me was a small bowl and then the precipitous drop down to the Ruth Creek Valley. We were at the "9" in 7191 on the map for Mt. Sefrit. I placed a couple of pickets with the slings at the second notch. There were cornices above me. Martin and Franklin were behind me on the rope. Snow was deep but I kept hitting the frozen layer of snow below me with the softly new snow on top of it. Then the slab of snow I was on released as well as about 30 feet of other snow above me. The slab was just over a foot thick. I was instantly covered with snow--but I don't know how deep. I knew I could not self arrest so I stabbed the spike into the snow. Nothing. Still moving. I tried again. Nothing. This is it. I knew there was a wall I was going to go over. But for some reason after that second spike stab I felt a slow tug on the rope and I started to pendulum out of the direct line of the avalanche. The snow kept going down--and I stayed put. The snow fell about another 600 feet over two walls. Martin and Franklin had held me. The pickets popped from the traverse. Martin and Franklin actually slid down the mountain too--they had their own sliding going on. Martin and Franklin had held me. Wow! Thanks guys!!!! After some mental recovery we got out of there and back to where we set up for the roping. And then we came back down without any further incidents. What did I learn? 1) trust your instincts 2) I might have tried the steep couloiur but I wonder if I would end up with the same result 3) I thought about placing deadmen for the pickets but the time consideration with the cornices above was not prudent. 4) The pickets popped even though I removed snow for the direct lines for the sling to "pull down". the snow was very soft on top, and did have any icey layer just below it, but another weird layer of almost soft snow below that. I have to think about this one more. Since I did not actually see the pickets popping I don't know if they just came out, or they went down into the snow like they were to do, and were pulled straight out from the pressure becuase the snow in the "back of the picket" was too soft. 5) I did not know how much snow had developed over the past couple of days. That new snow on top of the icy layer was not good. I thought it was only 1 or 2 inches..but it turned out to be much more depending on the wind loading. Think more about the consequences of what happens to the snow over several weeks. I already do this, but for some reason it did not register with me, and I wonder if I was more lacsidasical because it was spring. I have now used up 3 lives for my climbing. I wonder how many I have left. I don't want to find out. Hopefully everyone will show their pictures here.

[Dayhike Mike]

Whoa! Glad you're safe, Stefan... A good read and lesson I'm happy to learn from others rather than experiencing firsthand. Thanks for posting!

[nordique]

I know that the NWAC is no longer doing avy forecasts, since the season is theoretically over, but did your party do any slope stability testing, snow pit digging, etc.? The sort of stuff that the backcountry people on Turns-All-Year do. Thanks for posting the report--and for surviving to tell about it!

[Redwic]

[wildernessed]

Wow, "They held you". Traveling with good company has it's advantages. Glad to hear your OK, Oi !

[Quark]

Thanks for posting, Stef.

[fwb]

Glad in the end it all turned okay. Too easy to get at ease. “The mountain always wins…” I should have been more vocal regarding the snow and wind the day before, Was much less here than the day before on the Mt Loop. As Stefen crossed Cartman noticed a crack. We asked if it was there previously and before figuring that out things started moving and pickets popping like corks... I think last I said was, "oh Sh*&, Matt, hold me!" May have been different, but that was close. The snow layer was stable were we were. Couldn't get anything to start. Didn't look bad, but proved to be different a couple hundred feet away... Now for some eye candy:

1 label

Bush and snow at bottom of Wallstreet

Stefan working down to Ruth Creek

Crossing on a log

not liking the wet log Matt and I built a bridge. Martin takes an easier way across

not looking forward to coming back and getting back to the cars

heading up and right

Nearing the top of the gulley

finally views of the bowl, we’ll go left

went left (east)

and still going up over 3k

bluff above the glacier

no traversing yet. Just still up

Finally approaching the north running ridge

what’s over the other side?

now heading south up the ridge to a few hundred feet below the summit

Cartman and view looking north (Goat and Chardonnay)

roping up

heading out under a dubious buttress

Stefan deep in it

where not to be.

Image stolen from slabbyd Oct 2008. We were crossing the snowfield hear the left

..

a little shaken, he's okay!

Heading out (looking north to Goat)

down…

the optional north gulley (much steeper than the photo shows)

multi-mode down

final snow, BW3+ brush and the Cars

Oh, my, look… Yana is safe.

catching our breath and chilling.

Research?

Wanting a view of the NE side we drove up the road. Ahead in the road a mini van and what looked like a small rock/boulder, though with everyone pushing it took several attempts.

Cartman analyzing moving the rock

After a few attempts by 6 guys we finally broke down and called in the strong one…

Victory to Dicey. Glad she works out so much

Learned. Legs and calves get sore after the trip the day before (stretch). Even with all the experience of the group, STOP, LOOK, AND DISCUSS… Just because looks okay in one spot can be vastly different just feet away (or a hundred feet away) Play it safe. -fwb2

[twodogdad]

Congratulations, survivor, and blessings to your rope teammates. Your astute analysis of the situation is most instructive as is the fact that what saved you, in the end, was your judicious choice of partners--and a little bit of luck (namely, that only one of Franklin's shoulders is injured). N

[dicey]

A rather unpleasant way to learn the effects of windloading on a slope, firsthand. A few shots of my perspective:

footsteps up

Sefrit flutings

scouting the route ahead

Sefrit avalanche before

a few seconds later

Sefrit avalanche after

Stefan is ok

[canyonwren]

Holy crap! Glad you're okay, Stefan.

[Andy D.]

Wow, glad to hear y'all are okay Nice pictures!

[touron]

Glad you are safe!

[yukon222]

Some amazing pics of the steep traverse before/after the avi. Very, very glad you all came thru it OK. Whew!! Bet there was a bit of mental recovery time after everyone regrouped at a safe zone.

[Mtn Man]

Glad to hear that everyone was OK. Looks like that rope setup works, even if the pickets failed! Dicey asked how the snow conditions were up on Silver Star on the drive home yesterday. At first, I just commented that the glacier was crusty with a little ice and the ski down was corned up. But thinking back, we also discussed another aspect/couloir under Burgundy spire as we just chilled for 10 minutes in the sun. At first, I really wanted to skin up to it. But then after some discussion, we saw the cliffs with fresh snow and the coulee looked like it was wind loaded, also noting recent slides to the right from another aspect. When Don B came down from the glacier, he did a little probe analysis on the knob we were resting at. He noting a few stong ice layers separated by a few unconsolidated layers. Definitely stop/discuss/listen to others, it's advice to live by. B)

[Malachai Constant]

We decided not to do anything near Washington Pass due to the conditions this weekend, it was hard as a rock in the morning but got real soft when the sun hit.