Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 15 m
- Weak Layer
- New Snow/Old Snow Interface
- Trigger Type
- Natural
- Avalanche Type
- Soft Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 30 cm
- Start Zone Aspect
- East
- Avalanche Problem
- Wind Slab
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2987 m
The two of us hiked up a low angle ridge system starting from where the road ends in the Colony. We dug a pit on this same aspect above the slope and didn't find anything super reactive, but a noticeable weak layer between the latest storm and the snow from the warm period a week or two ago, about 10-12 inches down. We stuck to our plan to stay on low angle terrain and skied down the same ridge we came up. We were halfway up on our second ascent when it broke free naturally during a strong gust of wind. We watched it go from top to bottom, and shortly after a second small pocket released to looker's left of the same slide. On the second ascent we also were able to observe large shooting cracks near the edge of the steeper terrain on our right on the up track. Glad we didn't opt to ski the bowl even after our pit seemed to show somewhat low risk snowpack.