Quick report
- Slope Angle
- 41°
Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 38 m
- Trigger Type
- Skier
- Vertical Fall
- 152 m
- Avalanche Type
- Soft Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 30 cm
- Trigger Detail
- Intentionally Triggered
- Start Zone Aspect
- East
- Start Zone Elevation
- 3139 m
We saw widespread collapsing and cracking on all E and S aspect high elevation slopes. Before triggering this slide, one skier had skied the low angle (mid-20's) slope above and stopped just short of the obvious roll-over/starting zone. As the second skier came down following a similar line as the first, one of her turns caused a collapse that remotely triggered the slide 50' below the skier and 5' below the stopped skier. A small second slide was triggered sympathetically just north (100') across a rib on a seemingly unconnected starting zone. Second skier on the slope, remotely triggered, and a sympathetic to boot. Pretty interesting.
Hand shears showed several different weak layers in the upper snowpack that were not uniform from slope to slope, but ultimately, the collapsing and cracking were uniform on high elevation S and E aspects and the hazard was obvious.