Avalanche: Banana Days

Three of us in a group, two splitboarders and a skier, skinned up Flagstaff ridge and traversed Reed and Benson ridge to the small knob above Banana Belt. The wind had noticeably picked up this morning. I was the first to drop with the intention of hitting the central chute in Banana Belt. After a few nice soft turns off the top, I did a ski cut from right to left just above the mouth of the chute. I noticed to my right what I initially thought was just some sluff (expected from the latest low-density snow the past couple days) but it turned out to be a soft slab that popped about 50 feet behind me on a small convex roll. I was standing just far enough left not to get caught in it as it picked up speed very quickly, running all the way through the chute and exiting with a good size powder cloud. The slab seemed to break up very easily, and the amount of snow most likely wouldn't have buried me if I were caught. However, the exposure and lack of snow coverage in the rocky chute would not have felt very good.