Trigger | Skier | Remote Trigger | 0 |
Avalanche Type | Soft Slab | Aspect | East |
Elevation | unknown | Slope Angle | 30deg |
Crown Depth | 14in | Width | 20ft |
Vertical Run | 60ft |
Skinned up along ridge line from Manitoba parking lot. Skied east aspect through the trees.
Trigger | Skier | Remote Trigger | 0 |
Avalanche Type | Soft Slab | Aspect | East |
Elevation | unknown | Slope Angle | 30deg |
Crown Depth | 14in | Width | 20ft |
Vertical Run | 60ft |
Slab popped when I jumped over a wind loaded corner. Crown profile (see picture) shows 25 cm of fresh fist hard snow, sitting above 20cm of old near surface facets, above a decomposing rain crust (bed surface), above approximately 40cm of basal facets. Slide was D1 in size, but ran quickly given the short length of the slide path, and several alder anchors.
Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
Collapsing (Whumphing)? | Yes |
Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | Yes |
A large slide (D2-3), presumably running during the last storm cycle, was seen on east northeast aspect of Colorado Ridge (see picture). Additionally while breaking trail up from the road, I counted around 30 large, propagating collapses. Several of these collapses, we could feel the snowpack slide. A hard ski cut on a convexity produced a shooting crack that ran about 10 meters out from me (see picture).
Clear skies, slight east/southest wind (~5km/h), temps ~-10*C
20-30cm of new snow from last weeks storm cycle made for delightful skiing.
Remarkably poor structure... Several informal ski pole column isolations failed while isolating the column. Additionally, while skinning up our ski poles continuously punch through the surface slab(s), through the basal facets, to the ground. Snow Depths ranged from 50 cm(near the road) to 1.2 meters near tree line on the ridge line.