Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
- Collapsing
- isolated
100% made a mistake today. No injury. Scary moment. Caught and carried ~ 150' verticle while skinning. D1.5 R2 ~24" crown deepest. average closer to 12". ~100ft wide and ran ~300' verticle. Triggered on Ne aspect on mt olsen at ~10600 on lower part of a convexity. mid mountain near climbers right rib and aspect change. Released on shallow area adjacent to rock and propegated into cross loaded slope. The crown wrapped a short distance around the aspect change. Slid feet first on butt and back. Lost both poles and one ski in slide. All gear recovered. No burial. Debris 3 feet at toe. Skied out uneventully. Before slide: Left the trailhead and skinned to the base of s peak and olsen. Noticed moderate winds creating small but consistent wind transport. Uneventful skin up lower flanks of the zone. No signs of instability noted. General feeling of excitement and optimism on conditions. Continued working up the small gullies until the slope angle increased. Had a decision to make about going a lower angle route or crossing a short pitch to the ridge which was more direct. Feeling confident and relaxed i chose to cross the slope on what felt like windpress and shallow settled pow. At this time i was more concerned with the potential for slippery skinning than anything. Halway across the slope i felt an obvious whumph. In an instsnt cracking happened and i was sliding off my feet. Up until this moment i had seen no signs of instability. This slide could have certainly resulted in injury as I slid through rock and was fortunate to not hit anything. Good reminder to be vigilant in route choice even in seemingly benign conditions and smallish terrain features.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 10600 ft
100% made a mistake today. No injury. Scary moment. Caught and carried ~ 150' verticle while skinning. D1.5 R2. ~24" crown at deepest with average closer to 12". ~100ft wide and ran ~300' verticle. Triggered on NE aspect on mt olsen at ~10600 on lower part of a convexity. Mid mountain near climbers right rib and aspect change. Released on shallow area adjacent to rock and propegated into cross loaded slope. The crown wrapped a short distance around the aspect change. Slid feet first on butt and back. Lost both poles and one ski in slide. All gear recovered. No burial. Debris 3 feet at toe. Skied out uneventully. Before slide: Left the trailhead and skinned to the base of s peak and olsen. Noticed moderate winds creating small but consistent wind transport. Uneventful skin up lower flanks of the zone. No signs of instability noted. General feeling of excitement and optimism on conditions. Continued working up the small gullies until the slope angle increased. Had a decision to make about going a lower angle route or crossing a short pitch to the ridge which was more direct. Feeling confident and relaxed i chose to cross the slope on what felt like windpress and shallow settled pow. At this time i was more concerned with the potential for slippery skinning than anything. Halway across the slope i felt an obvious whumph. In an instsnt cracking happened and i was sliding off my feet. Up until this moment i had seen no signs of instability. This slide could have certainly resulted in injury as I slid through rock and was fortunate to not hit anything. Good reminder to be vigilant in route choice even in seemingly benign conditions and smallish terrain features.