Quick report
- Cracking
- widespread
The winds cranked overnight and turned 15cm of dry snow cold smoke to sastrugi and a range of wind affected surfaces. The loading overnight was enough to trigger over a dozen large wind and persistent slab avalanches. Persistent slab structure of facets over a crust (and sometimes just bottomless facets) exists all elevations with a northerly tilt, 25-50cm below current snow surface. Rock bands shedding and cornice falls seem to consistently find this layer and trigger slab avalanches. Cracking widespread in wind affected terrain 5k' to 8k'.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Aspect
- N
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 7000 ft
We saw multiple natural wind slabs in the HS-N-R1-D2 and SS-Nc-R2-D2 ranges. All occurred mid-slope in confined cols or rock bands following strong downslope winds or after spindrift triggered slabs. All of them occurred NE to NW, 4000-7000', and some ran as far as 1000'.