Quick report
Overall we knew there was a possibility for wet loose activity, but this event surprised us. The observations we made (before the slide) were: 1. It was much sunnier than we expected all morning. 2. A few hand pits were not giving any results. 3. The (fresh) skin track we were following was relatively direct/steep, and transitioned to booting right where the slide was triggered. 5. We did observe the solar effect on the new snow, but were not seeing any rollerballs, pinwheels etc. Observations (after the slide): 1. We triggered heaps wet loose activity skiing down. 2. My partner dug a few hand pits at the treeline, and was able to get one of them to move as a slab. He thinks it went on a mid-storm interface, not the crust.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1
- Aspect
- SW
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 5400 ft
Triggered a D1 wet loose and went for a 130' ride while skinning up Snoqualmie Mountain. Triggered wet loose on ~4" of the new storm snow while skinning up Snoqualmie Mountain just before midday. I blew out the skin track right before a kick turn, which is nothing unusual. Then the snow that was supporting me slid on the crust and I was unable to arrest myself, so I went for a slide, got strained through a couple of trees, and came to a rest on top of the snow. From the GPX track it looks like it was a 130' slide. As you can see from the photos, I enchained a reasonable amount of snow. I think it's a D1, but there was potential for injury if I'd hit a tree, gone off a cliff etc. As it is my only injury appears to be a sore finger, possibly from trying to grab a tree while sliding past.