Quick report
Intermittent sunshine and calm winds accompanied the tour today. Digging atop the Picnic Lakes we found the 12/7 crust and felt comfortable skiing steep terrain down to picnic lakes. We skinned back up to the ridge north of the radio towers. Stomping cornices along this ridge yielded no concerning results. We skied a wind scoured steep W aspect in the Crown Bowl. The apron had a 2-4 inch wind slab on it. Looking above us we saw another steep run that appeared sheltered from the wind. We then skinned to near the top of the Crown Bowl again. This time choosing to ride a steep NW aspect skier's left of the top of the bowl. The snow up top was unconsolidated without a slab and we decided to ski this slope. The first rider was a snowboarder that rode the slope with no problems. The second rider was a skier that after descending about halfway down the slope, triggered, was caught and carried by a D1 Wind Slab avalanche. The skier was not buried and sustained no injuries, see avalanche tab for more information. Throughout the tour we checked for weak layers and signs of instability. None were readily apparent. We found the 12/7 rain crust above the basal facets and cornices were unreactive to stomping throughout the day. Throughout the tour there were no major red flags, which matched the low avalanche danger rating for the day. However, we triggered and a skier was caught and carried in a D1 Wind Slab avalanche.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
Intermittent sun early with clouds developing as the day went on. Light winds.
Snowpack
We found the 12/7 rain crust up to our high point of 7000', snowpack on top of this crust was right side up in most places. Wind slabs were present in isolated locations.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1 R1
- Type
- HS
- Aspect
- NW
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 6800 ft
D1 Wind Slab avalance. 6-12" crown propagating 20-30 feet wide and one to two feet above skier. Skier was carried then skied left out of avalanche.