Avalanches on Raspberry Ridge
Quick report
- Weather
- windy, warm
- Snow Conditions
- windAffected, crusty
Weather
- Wind Speed
- windSpeedStrong
- Blowing Snow
- moderate
- Sky Condition
- brokenClouds
- Wind Direction
- W
- Precipitation Type
- snow
Avalanche
- Run Length
- 100
- Slab Width
- 30
- Trigger Type
- natural
- Wind Exposure
- leeSlope
- Avalanche Size
- 2
- Slab Thickness
- 20
- Start Zone Aspect
- E
- Vegetation Cover
- openSlope
- Avalanche Character
- windSlab
- Crust Near Weak Layer
- 1
- Runout Zone Elevation
- 2200
- Start Zone Elevation Band
- tln
- Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
- 2020-12-20T13:30:00
On Sunday, Dec. 20 around 1:30pm, we witnessed a windslab fracture just below the ridge top of Raspberry Ridge at around 2300m, and slid down to treeline level around 2200m. The ridge runs north-south, and the windslab fractured on the east facing leeward slope. Also saw evidence of two other similar slab slides further north along the ridge (at the steeper slopes closer to the fire lookout), and they ran out longer owing to steeper slope and no trees to slow movement. This was just before the heavy dump of snow. The rest of the hike in towards Raspberry Ridge was ankle to knee deep snow, but any attempts to gain the ridge would be best done avoiding the avalanche prone terrain using the 'easy route' by starting at the southern tip of the ridge and walking up along it, rather than attempting to gain it using the direct routes up the steep and corniced east face.