Avalanche: Lake Peak

I witnessed this skier-triggered avalanche. I arrived in the Boulder Basin area below Lake Peak, and saw a group of three skiers attempting to skin up the steep headwall that separates the NW ridge of Lake Peak and Red Pine drainiage. The top of the slope they were skinning up was noticably wind loading at the time. Our party discussed this among ourselves and opted for a more benign uptrack towards the rocky ridge that descends NE from the summit of Lake Peak (climber's left).

As we were contouring under Lake Peak, one of the skiers skinning up the more radical chute triggered either a shallow soft slab or a loose sluff and was caught and carried through a series of small evergreen trees. The other two skiers in his party were not caught in the avalanche. The skier who was caught was able to self arrest (after being strained through a few trees) and the slide debris washed past him. We communicated verbally and he stated that he was OK.

Sorry no photos. The light was very flat.