Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 46 m
- Weak Layer
- Facets
- Trigger Type
- Skier
- Vertical Fall
- 152 m
- Avalanche Type
- Hard Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 122 cm
- Trigger Detail
- Unintentionally Triggered
- Start Zone Aspect
- East
- Avalanche Problem
- Persistent Weak Layer
- Start Zone Elevation
- 3139 m
Today we headed up Cardiff Fork from BCC, the plan was to ski the lower angle terrain in the Ivory Flakes area. We had already skied a E facing low angle run and headed up to the nob under the Ivory Rock Slabs which is all low angle terrain. Once we got to the nob we realized that all the slopes under the slabs had avalanched during the storm. There was two pockets that had avalanche deep down to the PWL and that’s where we put our up track, probing with our poles down to the hard bed surface as we ascended. Once we got to the top I skied a 8 foot wide strip of snow that hadn’t avalanched between the two deeper slides, my partners moved to the right to ski. What we didn’t take into account until after is that the right side had avalanched but not down to the PWL. The second skier started skiing down and was almost half way down the run when it fractured a couple hundred feet above him. Luckily it was a slow moving slide and after hearing us yell avalanche my partner easily skied to the side before the avalanche got too close. The slide was about 150ft wide, had a 4 foot crown and ran about 500 vertical feet. the avalanche stepped down into the PWL and left a bed surface of loose faceted snow behind. A couple take always are, we would have never ventured up the slope if it hadn’t already avalanched, the PWL we are dealing with is tricky and pockety, the part that did avalanche during the storm must have reloaded up on the weak layer. I hate to admit it but I also think we kinda convinced ourselves that things were more stable than they were after watching the entire drainage getting hammered by skiers in LSB, High Ivory, Holy Toledo and Cardiac Ridge were heavily skied. But in the long run, we can only blame ourselves, and learn from this one. Second to last photo gives you perspective on the size of the crown, you can see the other two people in our party standing above it.