Dave Henry Backcountry
nathanjroper
While transitioning from Open Windslab Rock after observing a Ptarmingan having a snack, I stopped on the Windward side of a bowl at Alpine Elevation. We then witnessed a zig zag crack up to a windloaded new cornice. The entire windloaded ridge came down, intially from the rain layer , than straight to ground. A pit I dug earlier showed a very weak new layer on the Feb 28 15CM down snow layer, with some bonding to the 85CM Rain Layer, which had some movement on a stronger shovel hit. We were across the bowl from the avalanche, it stopped 10M from my skin track. There were also very large settlements (400-500M wide) throughout the day. The slope is historically a danger, and we were correct in staying our distance from it.
The debris stopped approximately 40 feet from us.
Source: Avalanche Canada MIN