Incident

Avalanche: Moonlight

Julian and FieldSalt Lake
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Avalanche

Slab Width
21 m
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Trigger Type
Skier
Vertical Fall
183 m
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Slab Thickness
36 cm
Trigger Detail
Unintentionally Triggered
Start Zone Aspect
Northeast
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Start Zone Elevation
2835 m

Skier ski-cut the top of the main steep entrance to high line, sluffed a bit of snow down towards the second drop. No wind slab here. Splitboarder skied the top part of Highline without incident but cut a sharp turn where the second drop begins and triggered a storm slab which propagated ~20 feet to each side. He lost balance and deployed his airbag as he was carried 100 feet with the snow, ending up on top. The storm slab/sluff ran 5-700 feet down slope. D1/R1 in forgiving terrain. Wind slabs weren't the only concern today!

Triggered loose dry slide approximately 400' below ridge near the bottom of the chute. I was carried around 50', stayed on surface with use of airbag, and was able to easily exit slide area unassisted.

Incident

Number Caught
1
Number Carried
1