Planetary peak avalanche

dirtrider121 , Saturday 8th April, 2023 4:10PM

Snow conditions were: Deep powder, Heavy. Weather conditions were: Cloudy, Sunny, Warm. We rode: Alpine slopes, Steep slopes. Riding quality was good.

Avalache Conditions: Rapid temperature rise to near zero degrees or wet surface snow.

Avalanche

There were No signs of recent avalanches in the area.Rode an adjacent less steep slope before moving to steeper terrain. Two riders rode through the slope before pulling out to a safe zone to watch as the third rider descended. We rode one at a time, Third rider aired off the drop from the trees lookers left landing between the trees and exposed rocks triggering the slide. Triggered as a soft slab with the crown/start about 5 meters above the rider, they were swept off their feet but managed to stay on the surface as they were swept down the face. It entrained mass and slid quickly. It appeared to trigger at a thin spot maybe on the sugary crystals at the base of the snowpack. Propagated into thicker areas. looking back we felt we were over confident in the forecasted “low” avalanche danger, test slopes and feeling we had not seen signs of instability, we felt we were less careful of terrain management/trigger points and rising temps as a result.