Quick report
- Slope Angle
- 38°
Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 8 m
- Weak Layer
- New Snow
- Trigger Type
- Skier
- Vertical Fall
- 61 m
- Avalanche Type
- Soft Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 15 cm
- Trigger Detail
- Intentionally Triggered
- Start Zone Aspect
- North
- Avalanche Problem
- New Snow
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2896 m
Skied Scottie's. Observed instabilities within new snow about 6" down pretty much everywhere we skinned/skied, but the slab on top was not terribly cohesive, so propagation was fairly minimal. My partner triggered a soft slab 6" deep while skinning up a fairly steep rollover. Estimate 38 degrees. The windloading and cracking in the spot that slid were obvious, and my partner was fairly certain it would slide before he triggered it. We saw a similar slide lower down on the skin track, set by a previous party, though it was on a less steep slope, maybe 34 deg., and didn't run far. Winds were gusty at times, more so at the upper elevations, but we observed sporadic gusts as low as the road. Despite gusts, the surface snow was still fairly loose, not too slabby, though it could be worse on other aspects (we were on predominantly north). Also felt that new snow was fairly well bonded to old surfaces, even on terrain features that oriented off of north and thus had crusts underneath.