Quick report
Touring up along the ridge-line we were going to ride we observed 6-12in of new snow overnight. My partner observed a storm slab that was releasing with minimal force in hand shear tests as we hiked up. Assuming there was going to be a reactive storm slab we planned on starting out with a lower angle ridgeline run that never got much steeper than 30 degrees. We planed on seeing how the snow reacted on smaller slopes as we rode down before venturing into any steeper terrain. As we descended the first run, a turn near the edge of the ridge remotely triggered a large and connected storm slab across the whole open face adjacent to the ridge. After the first run the falling snow turned to mist and started to saturate the surface snow. I’m assuming this only exacerbated the avalanche problem.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2.5
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- AR
- Elevation
- 6900 ft
Was riding a relatively safe 30 degree ridge line with steeper open 35-40 degree terrain on the riders right and gladed terrain off to the left of the ridge. While riding down the ridge, I made a turn closer to the edge of the open terrain. The turn remotely triggered a storm slab across the whole open face. The crown was 200-300 ft wide and 6-10in deep. The storm slab was very connected and the whole face slid, running about 400- 500 ft down into the trees below.