Quick report
- Slope Angle
- 36°
Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 11 m
- Weak Layer
- New Snow/Old Snow Interface
- Vertical Fall
- 46 m
- Avalanche Type
- Hard Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 137 cm
- Start Zone Aspect
- West
- Avalanche Problem
- Persistent Weak Layer
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2957 m
We possibly triggered this slide remotely from approximately 200 meters downslope, but are unsure of the trigger as we only experienced a single significant event of cracking and collapsing and did not see it run. When we saw it above us a couple minutes later, it was obviously quite fresh.
Upslope winds transported snow from the lower angle meadows below into the bottom of a minor chute between the Hallway Couloir and Holy Toledo. The initial release also triggered a slide on a rock slab to skiers right, which pulled out to the ground. The avalanche ran about 150 vertical feet into trees, with several barrel sized blocks still intact. The instability seemed relatively isolated to the bottom of the chute and the slope below, where extensive hollow hard slabs are sitting on large faceted grains. The remainder of this west facing area did not appear to be heavily loaded and exhibited acceptable stability.
Unfortunately, between the hollow windslab and the fading light, I was unable to get a good photo.