Quick report
- Cracking
- widespread
- Collapsing
- widespread
First ground of sleds up from Fishhook lot to Summit lake where we played a bit and poked very carefully into mountain terrain. 6-10” of loose, dryish pow on top of a firm/wet powder base and full sun. 34F at the lot at 9am. We were well aware of the avalanche ratings and had observed many on the drive in and ride up. No reaction around Summit lake so we moved over the pass and into the first valley to the east. Moved up into the northern flank of the Skyscraper peak ridge and found deep snow in wind sheltered areas. We had seen this particular spur slide in previous years so we did several progressively higher high marks with no reaction. After the high marks two sleds went up the face to the top of the spur. On their way back down, as the second sled was descending the entire slope to the riders left collapsed just to the left (southeast) of the uptrack, but did not collapse under the sled. Both riders rode out safely. A 3rd rider on top of the ridge observed the avalanche release and shooting cracks travel the length of the ridge, beyond where the avalanche occurred. This avalanche occurred after the 6th track on the same slope. We saw no less than a dozen recent slides throughout the rest of the day, including a large slab slide that occurred on the slope directly north of Summit lake near where we had ridden earlier, and a wet loose that cut the main trail from Fish hook to the pass.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2.5
- Aspect
- SW
- Trigger
- AM
- Elevation
- 4300 ft
SW face of the steep spur that juts out in a NW direction one bowl to the west of the western flank of Skyscraper. Storm slab broke approximately 2’ deep and propagated approximately 200’ wide depositing a large debris pile in the depression at the bottom of the slope. Nearly the entire ridge cracked, but only this portion collapsed (there was still hangfire).