Quick report
- Slope Angle
- 40°
Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 9 m
- Weak Layer
- Density Change
- Trigger Type
- Skier
- Vertical Fall
- 152 m
- Avalanche Type
- Soft Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 30 cm
- Trigger Detail
- Unintentionally Triggered
- Avalanche Problem
- New Snow
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2926 m
I triggered a decent soft slab avalanche about 200' below the Santiago Ridge on our second lap in the GB No area. I didn't notice a fracture as I skied but I did see some snow moving by me in my peripheral vision well below the convexity, which I assumed was sluff. I looked behind me and didn't see more snow moving, and kept skiing. Our second skier arrived at the rollover as a low cloud obscured the slope and was concerned I could have been involved, but upon getting onto the bed surface, saw my track down slope. We climbed back up the skin track for a lap on Moonlight and were able to asses that the debris looked significant enough to catch and carry a person but not to bury someone. I don't know if the fracture occurred directly on the bed surface or in a density change from early in the storm.
This avalanche hazard, on that terrain feature, would have been easily managed by a ski cut. Most of the steep features in upper Mineral avalanched during the big PI event on Wednesday, but I'd be wary of pockets like this one tomorrow, particularly if the RH stays elevated overnight and regardless of solar input.