Quick report
- Slope Angle
- 30°
Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 61 m
- Weak Layer
- Facets
- Vertical Fall
- 9 m
- Avalanche Type
- Soft Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 76 cm
- Trigger Detail
- Unintentionally Triggered
- Start Zone Aspect
- Northeast
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2499 m
This was one of the more interesting avalanches I've seen. We think that early in the morning around 5am a cat operator at Sundance
No one I talked to can actually remember this slope fully failing like this before as it normally has lots of skier compaction. In this shot you can see the slab failed and broke apart, overran the stauchwall and stopped a few feet later. The slope angle in this portion is 30 degrees.
The weak layer thickness varied from 2cm to 10cm and the slab consisted of 16" of 1F hard wind blown snow atop 12" of 1F- hard partially settled less dense snow from the storm on Dec. 6 and 7.
A look at the lower portion of the slab where it overran the stauchwall and stopped.