Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 61 m
- Weak Layer
- New Snow/Old Snow Interface
- Trigger Type
- Natural
- Avalanche Type
- Soft Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 61 cm
- Trigger Detail
- Cornice Triggered
- Start Zone Aspect
- East
- Avalanche Problem
- Wind Slab
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2865 m
Travel today was derailed by horribly soaked snow on our ascent up Lees Fork. We glopped and globbed our way up to about 8800 feet where it finally felt like the surface had dried out. Prior to that, from the Spruces lot up until the ridge of Tom's hill, we found a completely soaked 7cms of snow from this strange storm. The skinning improved somewhat above 8800 but the snow was still quite dense. Shoulda believed the weather forecast, I suppose.
Upon gaining the Reynolds' shoulder at around 930a, we observed a natural avalanche that looked like it had released in the previous couple of hours. There were some big blocks of snow down in the debris flow, so we suspect cornice fall that then triggered a wind slab in the new snow. The crown looked to be about 2 feet deep, and wrapped from our vantage on the more northerly aspect up just beyond the summit crest. Some bushes were exposed in the bowl as well, but I can't be sure that it stepped into any older weak layers. I'd estimate a D1.5, and it stopped around 2/3rds of the way down the slope. A good confirmation of the considerable hazard of the day.
The winds were cranking from the south on the ridge, and building more sensitive cornices right in front of our eyes. We skied down to check out how far the slide ran into the bowl, then decided to call it a day and go do something other than ski shmoo cream and get wind blasted.