Avalanche
- Trigger Type
- Natural
- Start Zone Aspect
- East
- Start Zone Elevation
- 3200 m
As soon as the sun hit the east facing steep slopes on Sunrise peak, around 8am, before it even started to get warm, some large new-snow sluff avalanches started pouring in to upper Tanner Gulch. We could see the same thing had happened at some point yesterday, too, and had skinned up over the debris. We saw 2, in quick succession, at about 8:15am. They didn't run too far, but the visual and the sound of them roaring off the cliffs was impressive. A good reminder that even a little bit of sun can get things going in the right situation, even before the heating really starts. The attached photo is of the cliffs the small avalanche came down moments before it actually did, right in front of the skier in the picture (it missed him, but spooky). I just missed getting a photo of the slide. Our plan was to get up and down very early, before the sun had much affect, and we did... but even so we should have steered even more clear of the slopes below the faces already in the sun, or gone even earlier.