Quick report
- Slope Angle
- 38°
Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 76 m
- Weak Layer
- Facets
- Trigger Type
- Natural
- Vertical Fall
- 107 m
- Avalanche Type
- Hard Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 122 cm
- Start Zone Aspect
- Northeast
- Avalanche Problem
- Persistent Weak Layer
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2865 m
Flat light, low cloud deck and very light snow all prevented getting a better photo. Of note this Natural appeared to have been triggered during High PI band that moved through the area around 0800. Heavy snow accompanied with Extreme WSW winds likely were the culprit. Of note, this slide appeared to have run in basal facets, and the avalanche did not clean out all the basal facets.
Unfortunately I was unable to safefly access the crown. When moving through the low angle hang fire, the pre-existing spider web cracks on this low angle terrain continued to glide minimally downhill. Also of note, it was obvious that this slide had happened sometime around 0800 because there was no new snow on the bed surface. Finally, as this slide moved downhill it apparently sympathetically triggered another slide in the gully that was one feature to the east. There were spider cracks at the top of this gully and on a rollover 3/4 the way down the second feature released and fed into the main path.
[Forecaster comment: The second photo was added on Jan 9. Photo by Pressman/Ernst]