Quick report
- Cracking
- widespread
- Collapsing
- widespread
I experienced the most wide spread collapsing and cracking I've ever seen in the mountains. Cracks consistently ran hundreds of feet and across entire slopes. This occurred for the entire length of our skin track once we got into snow deep enough to have a slab on top. We remote triggered at least three avalanches on fairly moderate terrain. We travelled conservatively, electing to skin up sage brush to avoid any possibility of a slide. We skinned a low angle ridge and turned around as slopes approached more than 25 degrees. Stability seemed about as bad as it gets.
Avalanche
Avalanche 1: Occurred at 8,600' on a NW aspect with a start slope of 32 degrees. We remote triggered it from about 500' away on gentler, safe terrain. It was hard to see how far it ran, but it broke at the ground and the slab was approx. 3' thick. It ran into thick trees and would definitely have been a D2. Avalanche 2 and 3: Occurred at 9,000' on the same aspect. We did not clearly see either avalanche run, but we feel pretty confident we remote triggered it from the same ridge. Collapsing was the most widespread I've ever experienced. We believe Avalanche 2 caused additional collapsing that released Avalanche 3 in the next drainage over, although the two slides had distinct crowns. Both slides ran to the ground. Avalanche 2 was another solid D2. Avalanche 3 was a D3. Both had slabs at least 3' thick and ran to the ground.