Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 91 m
- Trigger Type
- Skier
- Slab Thickness
- 36 cm
- Start Zone Aspect
- Northeast
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2957 m
we were trying to keep the angles low but unintentionally triggered this anyway. I was surprised because didn't look intimidating. Clearly steep enough. move a bit/ hit 5 mph maby and stopped in 10-40 feet.
caught but not carried, slab very soft and never got up speed. Didn't effect rider much. stayed riding on feet. only moved 10-40 vertical feet.
some range to crown 10"-16" suggest some wind drifting.
wrapped a bit aspect wise. ene to n. triggered ene makes me think not crust(see gagne obs 2/20)
i looked at crown/ slide. very soft 4 finger to fist slab and and bed. I think the soft bed and low angle that was mellowing helped it arrest.
weak layer had and was I think grapul, so did did the slab, just a ton of grauple out of this storm. Slope was below steeper slope/ cliff. no crust around weak layer.
I would guess grapple combined with new storm snow w density change/ wind drifted snow. it's been warm but snow keeps comming w lots of dense snow n record amount of grauple. 48 hr rule a good one. I did trigger 2 other very small slides on test slopes on way out and there was a lot of cracking. Even though it appears like ur in a grauple sandbox, there is a slab. hard/impossible to see wind drifting. Very touchy conditions.
Dave Kikkert photo