Ashman Wind Slabs

A good reminder to not underestimate the power of even small, thin slab avalanches. We triggered a wind slab avalanche in thin rocky terrain on a lee/cross loaded alpine slope. The first member of the group performed one ski cut across what we thought would be the start zone, before dropping in. A few turns were made before a large windslab propagated, collected through a funnel and before fanning out, thinning through the runout zone. It did not step down to any buried persistent layers, and appeared to run on an crusty, crunchy (thermal crust?) lay beneath the approximately 10-15cm thick wind slab. The flow of snow was enough to grab the skier and take them for a ride to the bottom of the slide and they were able to self-extricate and let us know they were all good via the radio. Thankfully everyone was okay and we enjoyed a bit more sun and debriefed over a sandwich. Lots of similar wind slab activity on E/SE aspects, most stopping in at the beginning of the runout. A great reminder to take your time in evaluating, and to test your gear before you might need it.

We travelled through some strong winds, with temperatures dropping and wind increasing throughout the day. Ice pellets were quite stingy, blowing hard and feeling like the size of BBs.