Angora Peak

Our group skinned up from the summer parking area for Angora Lakes. We immediately started to notice signs of instability. Shooting cracks from skis as we skinned and small collapses. Our group reassessed our plan and choose to ascend up one of the lower angle ribs. Our plan was never to go to the summit and to stay away from avalanche terrain. We were shooting storm skiing photos. As we climbed the east facing rib we unintentionally triggered a slab that failed between the ice crust and facetted snow about 2 feet below the surface. This caught us by surprise. It broke about 600 vert above us and ran down just short of our skin track. The crown was roughly 2 feet deep. This is terrain that our group had never seen a slide in and terrain that was less than 30 degrees. The facets above the ice crust ( if present) will cause real deal avalanches in terrain that does not typically slide. We knew it was a high danger day and traveled accordingly. The slope angle of this avalanche is not typical for the Sierra.

Quick report