Avalanche

Avalanche: Scotties Bowl

KikkertSalt Lake
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Avalanche

Slab Width
6 m
Weak Layer
New Snow
Trigger Type
Skier
Vertical Fall
30 m
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Slab Thickness
15 cm
Trigger Detail
Unintentionally Triggered
Start Zone Aspect
Northeast
Start Zone Elevation
2987 m

Remotely triggered a small soft slab in upper Scotties while approaching from the ridge. Was peeking into upper Scotties to look at a line, upon approach a shallow soft slab averaging 3-6 inches deep released and ran down onto the first flat below the upper headwall. Very soft with little potential for consequences. It did run a bit further than expected, due to the slick underlying crust. We expected some activity as the top 3-6 inches was mostly wind affected graupel and was pretty sensitive on the skin up. However, expected to release something on a ski cut and triggering it remotely was a little surprising. No doubt you could have worked up the ridge, easily triggering similar slides. We were up there early during the height of instability and I would imagine that most instability has already settled out.