Quick report
- Slope Angle
- 37°
Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 122 m
- Weak Layer
- Depth Hoar
- Trigger Type
- Snowmobiler
- Vertical Fall
- 244 m
- Avalanche Type
- Hard Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 366 cm
- Trigger Detail
- Unintentionally Triggered
- Start Zone Aspect
- East
- Avalanche Problem
- Persistent Weak Layer
- Start Zone Elevation
- 3200 m
This quite deep avalanche was likely triggered over the past holiday weekend, possibly on Monday. I'm guessing the trigger point was on the lookers left where a couple of sled tracks enter the slope and was likely a shallow spot? Pretty darn amazing how deep this slide broke into a heavy wind drifted slope. Getting caught in a deep hard slab avalanche like this one would be game over.
The first photo might be the likely trigger point where a couple of sled tracks enter the slope. This could have been just shallow enough for a rider to collapse the slope and once the fracture propagated uphill it pulled-out this very deep hard slab. I did not see any excavation holes, so I'm assuming the rider was able to escape this large avalanche?
Visited Double Hill today and it was double overhead. Very impressive slide triggered in a shallow portion of the lookers left flank. Super lucky there weren't a slew of riders on the slope at the same time otherwise this story wouldn't have a happy ending.