Avalanche

Avalanche: Two Dogs

ASchmidtSalt Lake
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Avalanche

Slab Width
15 m
Trigger Type
Skier
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Slab Thickness
30 cm
Trigger Detail
Unintentionally Triggered
Start Zone Aspect
North
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Start Zone Elevation
3109 m

I triggered a small slab avalanche skiing down lookers left of the main Two Dogs run and luckily was able to ski out of it. The top of the slope was clearly loaded but the snow was not reactive to a ski cut. I triggered the slide 5-6 turns into the run and was surprised it released so far downslope, but looking at the slope later there is definitely a bit of a roll there. There was some debris below the main Two Dogs run that I assumed was a point release from a cornice drop, but skinning back up it was clear that it was a slab that released along the rocks. In retrospect, we should have taken a closer look at that slide and perhaps avoided our chosen line. Another skier was able to trigger the hangfire from the slide I started and also able to ski out of it. Neither slide was particularly large but had all of the snow from both triggers slid at once, it could have been a much more dangerous slide. The snow seemed well bonded skinning up Flagstaff around 5 pm, but the old snow provided a good sliding surface for the new snow, which was quite a bit deeper on the north facing slopes and seemed to have a density inversion that made it pretty slabby.