Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 6 m
- Weak Layer
- New Snow/Old Snow Interface
- Trigger Type
- Snowboarder
- Avalanche Type
- Dry Loose
- Slab Thickness
- 5 cm
- Start Zone Aspect
- East
- Avalanche Problem
- New Snow
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2591 m
I was unsure whether to submit an observation or an avalanche for this one, but by some definitions the sluffs we triggered may be considered avalanches. The new snow was not sticking well to the old wherever there was an existing melt-freeze crust, or in some places a harder wind crust. On many occasions throughout the day where we were skiing below the wind-loaded snow and the depth of the new snow was only 2" or so we experienced a lot of sluffing/small soft slab avalanches in the new snow. These would typically run slow enough that I wouldn't notice I had broken anything loose until I had already made it down the slope and turned around to watch my ski partner. The couple of times I did get caught inside similar sluffs they weren't enough to knock me off my feet or even have a noticeable impact on my riding - there just wasn't much snow moving. But the observation to be made here is the new snow did not bond well to the old on most east aspects and could potentially have more serious consequences in areas where the snow is deeper. I only took pictures of the soft slab we broke loose in silver fork near the bottom of meadow chutes, but we had similar experiences on east/northeast aspects between 9000' and 10,000' in days fork as well