Quick report
- Slope Angle
- 30°
Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 12 m
- Weak Layer
- Facets
- Trigger Type
- Skier
- Vertical Fall
- 61 m
- Avalanche Type
- Soft Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 25 cm
- Trigger Detail
- Unintentionally Triggered
- Start Zone Aspect
- East
- Avalanche Problem
- Persistent Weak Layer
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2804 m
First - We triggered an avalanche on a steep rocky section of this slope about 20 feet wide at our feet. What surprised us was how the slide just kept going.
Second - We moved to a less steep part and smaller part of the slope to descend. The snowpack had been consistently breaking near our skis during our descent of CSR. What surprised me in this case was the slab broke about 10-15 ft above me. It was very slow moving and easy to move off the slab.
What was different? There was very noticable difference between these elevations near the bottom of CSR and higher on the ridge.
- The Cracking and collapsing was more subtle higher on the ridge. Lower on the ridge the cracking was much more obvious and the cracks were inches wide.
- The reason was that the snowpack was thinner near the bottom of the ridge. Having a thinner snowpack created much bigger and striated facets (4-6mm), thus a much weaker layer of facets under the new snow.
Read more in our observation HERE
Photo - Nikki standing on the other side of the slide.
Incident
- Number Caught
- 1