Quick report
We toured up from Tahoe Meadows via the Relay Ridge road and ascended the ridge following the path under the old tramway. Once we accessed the ridge we planned on skiing a feature lookers right of the tramway that we believed to be a lower-angle area of the slope. There were four previous tracks on the feature we intended to ski. Skier 1 descended and felt no instability. After skier 1 gave the “ok” signal, skier 2 began descending and initiated the slide, which propagated along the right to skiers left. The slide broke above Skier 2 but Skier 2 was clearly out of the path of the slide when it started. After the slide stopped, skier 2 finished descending with no other signs of instability. The slope had clearly been wind loaded, and better caution should have been taken the day after such intense winds. Nobody was caught or injured in the slide.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2 R3
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 9950 ft
Triggered what appears to be a wind slab avalanche. Skier was standing on right terminus of crown when avalanche slid and crown broke one hundred to several hundred feet to skiers right. Crown appeared to be at least 1.5 ft and center path slid roughly 50-100 feet. Forecaster comment: This has the signature of a persistent slab avalanche failing on the Jan 2 PWL. It does not look like a simple wind slab avalanche. A wind slab crown would not wrap around corners linking from rock to rock as this avalanche crown does.