Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
We toured above Crater Lake today. Arrived at the parking lot around 8:30, new snow totals were variable ranging from 2" at the parking lot to ~10" in isolated pockets at higher elevations. Storm snow was light, powdery, and unconsolidated. On the approach, along the more exposed ridge we noticed wind slab formation on N/NE slopes with some cracking extending from ski tip to tail. We opted to drop into our planned ski descent via the lower angle bench above the steeper N/NE facing slope. We suspected wind slabs could be present on the steeper leeward slope we planned to ski and visually noted wind texturing on the slope. We decided to ski cut the top of the slope prior to skiing. A successful ski cut released a shallow wind slab, 3-6" deep that propagated across the majority of the slope approximately 350 ft wide and ran 500 ft vertically to the small trees in the runout below. On our second lap we opted to ski the slope directly above Crater Lake. On our return approach skin track we noticed more wind slab formation on open N/NE slopes. On our descent we stopped at the top of the slope we planned to ski to assess the snow bellow. Again it appeared wind affected and a ski jump onto a small wind lip broke off a sizable chunk of snow that triggered a wind slab bellow. The wind slab avalanche was approximately 8" thick, propagated approximately 200 ft wide and ran 200 ft to the trees bellow.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Count
- 2
- Aspect
- N
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 9500 ft
Two intentionally skier triggered wind slab avalanches. First avalanche was a ski cut that triggered a wide propagating wind slab and second was a ski kick that broke off a block of dense snow triggering a wind slab bellow. Both avalanches occurred on N/NE facing slopes.