Quick report
- Slope Angle
- 39°
Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 18 m
- Weak Layer
- Facets
- Trigger Type
- Natural
- Vertical Fall
- 46 m
- Avalanche Type
- Soft Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 51 cm
- Trigger Detail
- Repeater
- Start Zone Aspect
- North
- Avalanche Problem
- Persistent Weak Layer
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2987 m
It appeared that the rider's right side of Stupid Chute (once you are out of the choke, and in the cliffs as it opens up) released sometime in the early morning hours on Friday. Sluffing off the cliffs from above combined with the 12 inches of new snow, and it overloaded the weak layer, and ran on the old firm bed surface from the slide that released during the Christmas Avalanche Cycle. This slide was a Storm Slab Avalanche with a Persistent Weak Layer as a contributing factor.
Of Note, the steep rider's left entrance at the top of Stupid Chute had a well defined Soft Slab fracture similar to the widespread cycle that occurred early Friday morning, and this may have also played a roll in sympathetically triggering the much deep soft slab previously described.
Other areas observed that had this 6 to 8 inch Soft Slab activity included: Rider's left wall above 100 turn gully, areas of the XY Chutes, small area in Rocky Points east facing, Lower Wolverine Chutes East facing, and a WNW small pocket on rider's right side of Sunset. All of these slides observed were repeaters from the Christmas Cycle, and the NSF's that formed during the dry and cold week after Christmas were the weak layers involved.