Avalanche

Avalanche: Chicken Sh#! Ridge

MFSalt Lake
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Avalanche

Slab Width
91 m
Trigger Type
Skier
Vertical Fall
91 m
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Slab Thickness
30 cm
Start Zone Aspect
Northeast
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Start Zone Elevation
2865 m

Very touchy and reactive storm slabs all over CSR around 1p today during high PI rates. Not much wind on the way up, but at the very top, the wind was cranking over the ridge from the southwest, transporting more snow. While moving across the very top of the Draw a small storm slab pulled out and ran loose slough past me well down into the draw out of sight (no signs of people or tracks into the draw at that time). We decided to ski CSR mostly on the ridge itself due to the sensitivity of things. Many small sloughs were running even there on lower angle, and some more connected small pieces would run as well, and then this big, well-connected slide was triggered when partner pulled up above a rollover that got a bit steeper below. It sympathetically triggered another big piece around a small subridge as well. Ran down some few hundred vert through trees below us and out of sight. It did not hit the skin track or anyone below. We expected localized new snow instabilities, but not these well connected pieces and full-go storm slabs.