Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
While driving up, we noted the very low snow level, and lack of wind. Joining a skin track up from Heather Meadows around 9am, we were commenting that this looked more like mid Jan than mid Nov, deep snowpack and a lot of unconsolidated powder. Riding conditions were looked good from the multiple parties descending the E face of Mt Herman. We did not observe any slides, but we did have some concern about the occasional sunbreaks heating S facing slopes. We had discussed Swift Trees or Ten Minute as a starting line, and we opted for Ten Minute for this reason. Once up on the ridgeline connection Cheap date and Ten Minute, we noted more wind scour than expected, but the wind wasn’t blowing hard at that time. We saw tracks out right from the Ten Minute top, but our attention was drawn left to an unskied chute. We did not dig a pit before dropping in. I did two quick hand pits on our ascent but in retrospect they were at different aspects than what we skied. In the hand puts, I noted some possible mid storm interface about 6” down, but it did not shear cleanly and seemed stubborn.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1
- Aspect
- N
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 4800 ft
I triggered a 70’ wide slide and was carried 150’. No injuries and skied away.