Quick report
- Cracking
- widespread
On the ascent we noted a cohesive storm slab on the surface, about 6 to 8 inches deep, wide spread. We noted cracks on kick turns. In the slot, the skiier entered on belay and jumped on the steeper panel out skiers left to assess stability. After coming off the rope, the skiier triggered an avalanche which ran wall to wall, top to bottom, about 8 to 12 inches deep. Skiier was able to ski out of the avalanche. It seemed to be a storm slab based on the presence of similar depth crowns on both sides of the feature, tracing the walls all the way down, including in the second constriction after the open slope in the middle. It could be been a wind slab, fed by snow from the rocky cliffs. Interface was identified as the new old interface, about 3 inches above the stout rain crust. Grain type, I wasn't quite sure but they looked like stellars though perhaps there was some near surface faceting happening that was not visible to the naked eye. Hand shears in the feature yielded planar results 3 inches above the ice crust but the interface did not seem to slide as easily as the avalanche would indicate. Size was perhaps d2.5 r4 or 5.