April Bowl

Went for a hike up Bennet's Ridge to the Hatch weather station and investigated the site of a skier-triggered avalanche from yesterday, November 10th. This avalanche was triggered by a rider who had previously descended an adjacent slope and was ascending the slope to regain the ridge when the avalanche broke out above them. Investigations revealed the crown was about 200' wide and the slide ran just about to the transition at the bottom of the slope, around 400' vertical. The crown ranged in depth from about 15 cm to just over a meter at its deepest, averaging about 40 cm. A crown profile identified two distinct 1 finger wind slabs with a preserved layer of small grained facets between. The avalanche failed on this layer about 15cms above the ground but proceeded to step down to the ground in several areas. Debris was large and blocky and the slide path was littered with large rocks. We are grateful no one was injured in this slide and we appreciate the reporting party sharing this information. 

Snow depths ranged from 30 cm's on leeward, southerly aspects to well over a meter on north and westerly aspects above 4k ft. Crown profile on the avalanche produced repeatable propagating ECT results (22) on a thin layer of facets sandwiched between two very firm wind slabs.