Quick report
- Cracking
- widespread
- Collapsing
- widespread
It was a crisp bluebird day where temps stayed relatively cold the entire time. Very light/no wind was observed throughout the day as well. While ascending Skook face no obvious signs of instability were found. A few quick hand pits indicated the surface snow was non-cohesive and hadn’t been very effected by wind. Surface hoar was forming towards the top ridge of Skook face as well. First descent on the south aspect of Skook was very soft until about 6400ft where a crust layer was felt under 5in of soft snow. While heading towards Dorothy, our party wrapped around towards the saddle on an eastern aspect. This area had signs of wind transported snow as small cornices and wind drifts were noted towards the ridge line if the snowfield where the slid was triggered. “Whoomfing” and shooting cracks were observed prior to and after the slid released. Most likely this was triggered on the late January surface hoar and faceted snow. The wind transported snow, coupled with the early and direct solar input on the eastern aspect ultimately caused more cohesion in the snowpack on the upper layers to form more of a slab not seen on the southern aspect skied earlier that day.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5 R1
- Type
- HS
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 6600 ft
While skinning/traversing a more open snowfield on an Eastern aspect heading towards the saddle of Skook and Dorothy, a slide was triggered by the first party member to cross. This was at an elevation of 6600ft and an approximate slope angle of 35 degrees. Initially, a “whoomf” was heard and communicated to the party members waiting to cross. After 5-7 seconds, an avalanche slid about 10 ft in front of the the first skinner. They were not caught in the slide. Crown height of the slide varied but was about 15 in at its thickest. This crown was 30-35 ft above the traveling party member and had an approximate width of 40-50 ft. This was a D1.5 avalanche. Also noticed was a shooting crack that propagated from the crown about 20 ft to the lookers left, directly above the skinner. This did not end up sliding.