Quick report
In the same area we had trouble with wet loose problems on our exit, we observed small wet loose slides/roller balls on our ascent on the steep NW-E aspects which had likely released the day before. Otherwise, there were only a few other areas with roller balls at the higher elevations, and no other signs of instability were observed. We had to hike on the trail for the first 3.2ish miles until we reached snow.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
Warm and sunny most of the day, windy at the top of Ski Dreams but calm everywhere else. Very warm later in the day on the descent down the trail.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1
- Type
- WL
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- AR
- Elevation
- 9190 ft
After reaching the top of Ski Dreams around 2 pm, we experienced pretty dry snow on the descent in the couloir, and there were no signs of wet instabilities there besides a few small point releases on steep east facing aspects that we thought had happened the day before. Immediately below the couloir, the snow was much wetter and grabby. We had no troubles with wet snow instabilities until the final portion of the exit (we reached this area around 3 pm) on the NW to E facing steep aspects directly above Horse Creek. Poor route planning on this portion of our descent led us to steep areas with groups of trees, rock outcroppings, and potential exposure to cliff bands where it was very easy to trigger small wet loose slides. I was able to trigger slides without any effort on heelside turns, which began at my feet at about the width of my snowboard but entrained snow further down and produced large roller balls. Recognizing this dangerous situation, we were able to choose an exit path which prevented any issues, but not without a few more instances of triggering small wet loose slides which entrained more snow further down slopes and produced several roller balls as large as tractor tires. These slides did not release above us in any instance and were initiated by turns, and we were never displaced by them. However, we certainly acknowledge that we made mistakes on our final descent out of the zone which put us in a potentially dangerous situation. Had the snow been wetter and these wet loose slides larger, we could have been swept into trees/rocks or even over smaller cliff bands. It also could have been a very dangerous situation if one of us was below the other on a steep slope and had these slides triggered above them.