Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Signs of instability included pin wheeling snow and minor surface cracking. About 12 inches of fresh snow, Isolated wind loaded areas were over 24 inches deep. Weather was warm And sunny to start the day. Upon gaining the peak, a squall blew through, the sky darkened and west wind picked up to 60mph+. What was powdery snow baking in the sun suddenly froze to a crust on the top 1/2 inch. Our group traveled cautiously and did not intend to ski any exposed or steep terrain. On our way back out of the bowl we held a skiers right line and traversed across a small steep slope on a false peak just above and south of the skin track. This is the NE aspect slope that was triggered as we rounded from a more northerly aspect of the small slope.
Avalanche
Red Lake Peak, East Bowl. 8600ft elevation on NE aspect about 75 yards above the skin track. Slide occurred on May 5th, 2024 at around 4:30pm. One snowboarder was caught and carried about 60 feet through a stand of trees, but was not fully buried and sustained no injuries. The slide was large enough to bury a person. The avalanche was triggered by the snowboarder who was subsequently caught. The crown varied in thickness from 4 inches up to 18 inches, the slide propagated about 75 feet wide, broke 50 feet above the snowboarder, and traveled about 250 feet down slope.