Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 30 m
- Weak Layer
- New Snow/Old Snow Interface
- Trigger Type
- Snowboarder
- Avalanche Type
- Soft Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 10 cm
- Trigger Detail
- Unintentionally Triggered
- Start Zone Aspect
- East
- Avalanche Problem
- New Snow
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2865 m
Toured up argenta to the top of Kessler peak and rode down the east couloir into catchers mitt. On the way up, the few inches of new snow was sluffing easily, but we saw no cracking or slab activity, even in areas getting windloaded. The east couloir sluffed easily, but didn't run particularly far or fast.
Between the bottom of the east couloir and down to about the 8600 ft mark in the catchers mitt, we triggered multiple shallow storm slabs. Any slope 30 degrees or steeper we skied on or close to slid, some remote triggered or sympathetic releases. The slides were all shallow, 3 or 4 inches deep, but propagating fairly far. Largest individual avalanche was about 100 feet wide and went a few hundred feet down hill. With the shallow depth, not much of a risk in the terrain we were on, but more snow on top would be a different story. This wasn't during a period of heavy snowfall and the slope wasn't windloaded.