Avalanche

Avalanche: Scotties Bowl

OttoSalt Lake
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Avalanche

Slab Width
24 m
Trigger Type
Skier
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Slab Thickness
30 cm
Start Zone Aspect
Northeast
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Start Zone Elevation
2896 m

I triggered this avalanche on a ski cut, and it quickly propagated about 80' across the slope. The avalanche was a soft slab / storm slab and was relatively slow moving and ran about 100-200 feet. The avalanche broke on the new snow - old snow interface (crust) about 12" down. There was no evidence of any new wind loading near the crown. We had noticed poor bonding of the new snow layer across many locations and aspects on our tour. We ski cut other slopes which generally produced minor sluffs, so we were surprised to see how far this soft slab propagated. It was snowing very hard for about an hour right before the avalanche. There were no tracks near the avalanche debris and we did a quick beacon search to confirm no one was caught.