Quick report
- Slope Angle
- 39°
Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 91 m
- Weak Layer
- Facets
- Trigger Type
- Natural
- Vertical Fall
- 183 m
- Avalanche Type
- Hard Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 107 cm
- Trigger Detail
- Cornice Triggered
- Start Zone Aspect
- Northeast
- Avalanche Problem
- Persistent Weak Layer
- Start Zone Elevation
- 3200 m
Multiple avalanches on the leeward side of heavily wind loaded north facing slopes in the wind zone. Driven by the 2/7 storm cycle (18" snow with 1.7" H2O) along with big winds, the slides I observed fall in line with a failure on the 2/2 NSF. In addition, they follow the trend of recent avy activity in steep, rocky terrain that harbors weak, sugary snow
Day off, but I wanted to follow a hunch with the 2/2 NSF and to keep my avy skillset sharp. My partner and I had a most excellent snowpack recon along with some avy sight-seeing which confirmed my suspicions.
So we went to non-avalanche terrain (sunny, low angle, planar rather than steep, rocky, shady)
And then the church doors opened... delivering truly remarkable, high alpine skiing on low angle, sunny slopes along the way :)