Trigger | Natural | Remote Trigger | 0 |
Avalanche Type | 0 | Aspect | West Southwest |
Elevation | 2100ft | Slope Angle | 34deg |
Crown Depth | unknown | Width | 125ft |
Vertical Run | 250ft |
Trigger | Natural | Remote Trigger | 0 |
Avalanche Type | 0 | Aspect | West Southwest |
Elevation | 2100ft | Slope Angle | 34deg |
Crown Depth | unknown | Width | 125ft |
Vertical Run | 250ft |
Huge slab. 5-6 ft deep at crown. The whole mountain shook with what sounded like a cannon blast. The snow under me ( flat spot 1/4 mile away) went "WHOOOMF" and vibrated for a minute or so. I went down towards the noise since I saw two skiers heading that way earlier and discovered ski tracks heading into the avalanche. It looked like the whole face ripped off. I turned my beacon to search and scanned the debris field. I failed to receive a signal. At the bottom run-out I found two sets of ski tracks leaving and proceeding in classic "s-turn" fashion. This leads me to believe that the avalanche was not triggered by skiers but just happened to go in the same spot(even if it was just 10-20 minutes afterwards). The avalanche was on a convex roll over, on one of the first snow fields above tree line right of the skin track (skiers left). The avalanche happened where the snow was transitioning between slush/crud and powder.
Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
Collapsing (Whumphing)? | Yes |
Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Warm, "t-shirt" weather (45 degrees F?)
The avalanche occurred between the new feeling powder and some heavier slush/crud. The snow on this (WNW) aspect was very heavy and sounded much different (sloshy) than the (NNW) aspect that I was doing laps on.
I dug a snow pit on the NNW aspect below the jagged peak on Eddies. I found some instabilities at around 2ft down but could not get it to trigger in a column test (even jumped on it). I did not dig down to the length of the 5-6 ft of the avalanche that occurred on the WNW aspect so I don't know if the persistent slab exists there too.