Little Ollie

Traveled the standard skin track ascent route to Oliver. During the up I observed light to moderate wind transport of the new snow, with several small cross‑loaded features forming in exposed sections. I intentionally broke trail in multiple locations to assess slab sensitivity and was unable to initiate cracking, collapsing, or propagation on the up track. Crossing the ridgeline toward the false summit, wind speeds increased notably, as well as clear uptick in active snow transport off the ridge and into adjacent leeward east facing aspen trees (whiskey bowl area). There was a thin, punchy wind‑affected slab of the new storm snow, consistent with recent loading. From the top of Little Ollie , I descended into state line canyon trending slightly skier’s left. Roughly 500ft into the ski down once I entered one of the open meadows I encountered shooting cracks and slab movement, followed immediately by a small skier‑triggered avalanche. The slab fractured above me and knocked me off my feet as it ran. I was carried approximately 15–20 feet downslope before grabbing a tree. The avalanche continued an additional ~20 feet, running roughly 40–50 feet downslope from crown to debris edge. On remainder of descent I experienced several additional small wind slabs releasing on similar open, unsupported terrain features - these were comparable in depth to the initial slide. I also observed frequent, widespread shooting cracks. The crown on photographed avalanche was approximately 7–8 in tall and ~10ft wide, consistent with a wind/storm slab. I was skiing alone and believed I that I was making conservative decisions in personally well-known and frequently traveled terrain. Hindsight, familiarity lulled me into a false sense of security. I was also playing hooky from work.

Little Ollie

Quick report

Avalanche