Shooting cracks Burnt Knob

<p>Snow was very heavy and wet up to about 1400m where it became dry and light. About 10cm of new snow sits on a weak rain crust which vanishes above 1400m. Conditions were stormy so we turned around early from our objective (around 1550m), on the ski out we stuck to mellow terrain (less than 30 degrees), and avoided convexities. One member of our party remote triggered a release off a convexity 10-15m below them while skiing a 25 degree planar slope, the snow was quite heavy and wet at this elevation. Shooting cracks were observed stretching 20m on either side of the convexity and running 40cm down through the recent storm snow to the buried surface hoar weak layer. We skied over to another bench about 100m away on a planar 30 degree slope and observed new shooting cracks stretching about 20m out from the skiier. We changed our exit plan and headed for tighter trees, no other instabilities were observed on the ski out.</p>

Terrain Ridden

Mellow slopes, Open trees.

Terrain Avoided

Alpine slopes, Steep slopes, Convex slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

Rapid temperature rise to near zero degrees or wet surface snow.

Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Snow Conditions

Heavy, Wet, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Stormy, Windy.