Avalanche time... not the car, the killer slide!

[beefchips]

Skiing today I saw this lil guy inbounds, directly under the lift. It's a wind slab avalanche with about a 20' wide and 6" deep crown. Looks like it was set off yesterday by a skier judging by the cracks under shiny yet soft tracks (it rained Tuesday but was sunny and warm yesterday).

You can see the crown casting a shadow and the track where there's no more dust on the surface. The debris field is down below on the left side of the photo.

It's a low-consequence slope so a good chance to poke around and maybe learn something. The track falls about 30' vertical and the debris didn't change directions and skid down the gully. If I trigger another slide, it's going to be ankle deep and only maybe 60' long.

I skied up on top on the flat above the gully and poked it with my pole. No cracks, so I shimmied out to where it rounds off the ledge. No cracks again, so I jumped. Nothing! I felt with my pole and with my hand how the top layer of snow had bonded to the underlayer over the space of just 24 hours... there must have been quite a bit of water movement yesterday and this morning because it was difficult to feel any boundary at all in the snow profile even though I knew exactly at which depth to search.

Satisfied it was safe, I skied down under and checked out the debris field. I got another photo of the slide doing its best to look super dangerous!

Not too bad for a chill day of in-bounds skiing. Got some nice views, had a beer, and now I'm sitting in front of the fire with a cat. I hope your day was just as gorgeous!

[jminer]

@beefchips that looks like a very good day!

[beefchips]

@jminer Yes sir! Weekday skiing is the best, no lines and no covid worries. I was bummed about no chance to travel abroad this year but actually having a ski pass instead is pretty sweet.

[Italia]

@beefchips are you sure that's not a wet avalanche? The snow may have been wind deposited at one time but it looks like it's been heat cycled and this was really wet.

[beefchips]

@italia Hmm well not so sure now you mention it. Here's my thinking, maybe you can correct me... so there were big storms Mon and Tues that were depositing snow at this elevation. The winds were from the SW which would have loaded this as it's a leeward slope. I didn't observe any slide on windward slopes elsewhere in the resort. That said I didn't see the "pillow" profile that often is described for wind slabs. And, there was rain on Tuesday afternoon. So in all not 100% sure.

[Italia]

@beefchips if it rained it's a wet for sure but you would want to look at the bed surface and see what it failed on. Slabs fail on layers of sugary snow or on freeze crusts. Wet slides happen when the snow is saturated from heating or rain and the water can't drain fast enough.