Avalanche

Avalanche: West Monitor

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Quick report

Slope Angle
37°

Avalanche

Slab Width
9 m
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Trigger Type
Skier
Vertical Fall
244 m
Avalanche Type
Wet Slab
Slab Thickness
30 cm
Trigger Detail
Intentionally Triggered
Start Zone Aspect
Northeast
Avalanche Problem
Wet Snow
Start Zone Elevation
3078 m

Pushed a small pile of snow into West Monitor Bowl, this quickly initiated a wet slab that was 30ft wide and ran astonishingly fast on the old snow surface. As it proceeded down the slope it gain momentum and volume and ran out onto the flats at the bottom leaving a large, heavy and dense debris pile at the bottom. The bowl already had a few other wet slides from cornice falls and anything over about 34 degrees was primed to wet slide. Seeing this I kept my slope angles down the rest of the day.