Purple Knob Loop

Snow was deep and fairly light where we dropped at about 2460m. The snow got heavier as we got lower, around 2150m. Finished the day early - we wanted to be off the snow before it got too warm. Triggered two avalanches, one accidental and one intentional. See avalanche section for details.

First avalanche was a skier accidental, size 1.5-2. Crown was about 40cm deep and 60m across. Runnout size was difficult to estimate due to low visibility. Skier was able to ski out without incident. Best guess is slope was 33 degrees. Had been skied by 8 skiers already without any avalanche activity, but last skier found the trigger point. We expected wind loading given the forecast, but did not observe any signs of wind loading. Second avalanche was intentional, triggered with a ski cut on a steeper (about 36 degree) east aspect. Also size 1.5-2. Bed surface was only moderately firm, not hard. Pictures are from the second intentional ski cut avalanche. Crown was about 35cm, 20m across, ran about 100m.