Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
- Collapsing
- isolated
Very light wind transport was noted in the morning after a day of extremely high winds. Winds remained higher near the base of boot spur than the summit throughout the morning. A false sense of security was given discussing with others at hojo’s recent descents from that morning in Huntington/tucks sharing good stability reports and watching others ski chute as we made our way towards boot spur. We became complacent.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1 R1
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 5000 ft
Skier 1&2 accessed dodges drop via Hillmans Highway, noting mostly 1F to P hardness of wind slabs with good cohesion during the ascent. Skier 1 noted what looked like heavily wind affected sastrugi in start zone of Dodges prior to dropping in. Skier 1&2 made decision to drop into skiers left of dodges drop to get a better edge in more textured sastrugi surface instead of the smooth wind board of the surrounding area. Skier 1 noted wind affected snow was far softer in a small pocket once they skied down to a safe zone below the buttress in the middle of dodges start zone. Skier 2 dropped in, momentarily stopping near the top of the wind slab and causing a trigger. Slab was ~5m x 3m x 5-10cm soft slab breaking on existing wind affected snow surface on a ~50° slope. Skier 2 was carried ~200’ before self arresting.