There’s still avalanches out there

joanna.waterston , Tuesday 18th February, 2025 10:15AM

Party of three headed into 12mile for the day. As we were travelling to an alpine saddle we felt a large whumph, cracking around the first skier was observed (5m by 5m). The slope was about 30 degrees. We backed off and skied down. We opted to ski another slope closer to tree line, in a more sheltered area. No signs of instability were noted as we were gaining the ridge, or along the ridge. The first and second skier descended the slope, skiing great powder top to bottom. The third skier dropped in from a different entry point, kicking off a small (size 1, 30-40 deep) slab near a rocky area. This slab entrained an impressive amount of mass and speed as it moved downhill. The resulting avalanche was a size 2, running 2/3 path. No involvement. Suspected release on FC layer buried after last storm (Jan 30).

See quick report.