Quick report
TERRAIN/DECISIONMAKING: This terrain matched the forecasted wind slab avalanche problem. I chose to ski it because it was a short pitch with a good runout and minimal hazard. On our skin up we saw that a party of 3 had recently triggered a similar D1 wind slab higher up the ridge on a slope that was steeper and longer, with the potential to sweep someone into/over trees, rocks, and cliffs if caught. Though nobody in that party was caught or carried, we decided to cross off any complex terrain we had been considering and make lower angle soul turns. While both avalanches would have been unlikely to bury someone, we didn't want to get swept into or over any of the barely buried obstacles.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1
- Aspect
- N
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 8300 ft
AVY/TERRAIN DETAILS: Triggered a D1 wind slab on a N aspect @ 8,300' at 10:10 this morning. Crown was 6-8" deep, slab was roughly 30' wide by x 20' long, start zone was a 35 degree north slope that had visible wind deposit. The slope mellows out to 30/sub-30 degrees after ~100 vertical feet. The main thing that was interesting about this slide is that it started as a small wind slab, which then slowly but persistently entrained the new storm snow below, and ran ~250' vertical feet over an average slope angle of 30 degrees. Even skiing at moderate speed in deep snow I stayed well ahead of the slide (see pix).