Quick report
We did not observe avalanche hazard at the start of the line however mid slope there appeared to be several avoidable, wind drifted pockets. This is exactly what the avalanche report had warned about. No instability concerns were observed. There was no visible snow transport. No cracks while we were skinning. The snow surface at the top of the gully appeared wind hammered and bridged and we confirmed this with stability tests. The general avalanche advisory did warn of "isolated areas of unstable snow at middle and upper elevations which could avalanche from the weight of a person" specifically on steep northeast aspects.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 32
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
The weather was warming throughout the day.
Snowpack
The snow at the top of Airplane Gully was bridged and stable. We dug a pit, performed a CT and an ECT with no results. We also cut a sizable cornice with no results. Last, we did a ski cut across the top of the headwall with no results. Someone came after we performed these tests and skied the line without incident. When we got to the merge of Spacewalk and Airplane gully there were isolated pockets of windslab as the avalanche report had stated. These looked avoidable. About 30' into the run a hard slab popped above me and carried me about 700'. The start zone clearly had a different snowpack than mid line in Airplane Gully. The isolated pockets were not obvious but clearly present.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2 R3
- Type
- HS
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 5200 ft
Hard slab avalanche that ran about 700'. This was triggered around 1130am. The isolated pockets of unstable, wind drifted snow were the culprit.