Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
There was a lot of new snow on Shadow and Surprise today and a reactive storm slab in many places. Ridgetop winds were very gusty with lots of blowing snow. Noticed windslabs developing throughout the day in wind affected areas. Snow skied very well, right side up, mid-density pow. Faceshots on demand! Observed a few very large cornices in places they don't often form. Noticed a few very blown in crowns on N/NE aspects near cliffs/rocky areas. Experienced some cracking in the storm snow off
Weather
- Air Temp
- 25
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 12+ inches
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
It did not feel like April in the Tetons.
Snowpack
Did not dig a full profile, but several hand pits and probing showed a low-density storm slab (12-20 inches deep) sitting on top of a widespread harder layer (likely 3/29 interface). This was the interface both avalanches failed on.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2 R3
- Type
- SS
- Count
- 2
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 9700 ft
Skier (me) was riding the steep treed ridge skier's left of the Shadow N Couloir. Remote triggered small storm slab about 20 feet off my tips that ran over a small cliff and then propagated onto slope below. I decided to ski around the small cliff to ski the bed surface and stomped on the small pocket remaining next to the crown to get it to flush, which then triggered a much larger slide that propagated across the entire couloir, up the far wall, and ran down through the dense trees below me. Bed surface was a firm sun crust with facets on top. Crown height was pretty consistent around 1.5-2 feet. Slab was very soft and broke apart easily as it ran (debris pile did not contain any visibly large chunks) but definitely would put you in real trouble in consequential terrain as it ran very quickly.