Quick report
This was an off duty tour. My primary goal was to look at the human-triggered avalanche in this area and move mylegs.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Recent Snowfall
- 2-3
2-3 cm of new snow from this morning. Winds switched direction mid day for an hour or two, from S to NW. As they did, they easily picked up the low density snow that had fallen recently. I did not observe any obvious slab formation, mostly just light snow sifting around.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Type
- HS
- Count
- 5
- Aspect
- W
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 7600 ft
Remotely triggered in heavily wind-loaded area, from the ridge above. This slide failed on a slick, wind hammered sufrace that developed during the February dry spell in this area. There were likely some small facets here as well. This is the 2/24 weak layer, but its properties here were pretty specific to heavily winded terrain. The 2/24, 2/14, and 2/1 layers are co-located on a slope like this. In one small area this stepped down to a deeper weak layer (likely 1/6). Slab thickness varied from ~30cm to ~120cm, thanks to wind loading.