Size 2 on Claimstake
Avalanchepeanutbutterman · Feb 6, 2021 · Manning
Quick report
- Weather
- cloudy, stormy
- Ride Type
- cutBlocks, mellowSlopes, convexSlopes, openTrees, alpineSlopes
- Stayed Away
- steepSlopes
- Riding Quality
- amazing
- Snow Conditions
- deepPowder, powder
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSnow
Great day of skiing and skinning but the significant snowfall made things riskier in open areas, unsupported slopes. Triggered ~size 2 avalanche in alpine terrain just below claimstake summit. Skier 1 triggered over skier 2’s turns while moving across the face. Propagated 30m or so, with runout about 400m, it was storm slab 30cm layer that came off. Everyone safely spread out so no incidents thankfully. Coordinates and time approximate.
Weather
- Wind Speed
- windSpeedLight
- Blowing Snow
- moderate
- Sky Condition
- overcast
- Snowfall Rate
- 2
- New Snow24 Hours
- 30
- Temperature Trend
- steady
- Precipitation Type
- snow
Snowy, gusts of wind. Lots of snowfall over the weekend (from Friday to Sunday about 45 cm snowfall).
Snowpack
- Depth
- 2800
- Obs Type
- point
- Site Aspect
- S
- Test Fracture
- resistant
- Site Elevation
- 1500
- Ski Penetration
- 30
- Test Initiation
- easy
- Test Failure Depth
- 30
- Site Elevation Band
- tln
- Surface Conditions
- newSnow
- Test Failure Layer Crystal Types
- stormSnow
Storm slab came off in 14 hits in column test. No results in other layers. Once in tree-line conditions, we had noticed some pizza-shaped slabs form at the corners of the kick turns on the skinning up (similar to shooting cracks). No whumpfing noticed or 'traditional' shooting cracks propagating into open snow. We made note to not ski over other people's tracks because of this (the avalanche was triggered because skier 1 ended up crossing skier 2's tracks on the way down)
Avalanche
- Run Length
- 300
- Slab Width
- 30
- Trigger Type
- skier
- Wind Exposure
- leeSlope
- Avalanche Size
- 2
- Slab Thickness
- 30
- Trigger Sub Type
- accidental
- Start Zone Aspect
- SE
- Vegetation Cover
- openSlope
- Start Zone Incline
- 30
- Avalanche Character
- stormSlab
- Number Of Avalanches
- 1
- Start Zone Elevation
- 1950
- Runout Zone Elevation
- 1650
- Weak Layer Crystal Type
- stormSnow
- Start Zone Elevation Band
- tln, alp
- Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
- 2021-02-06T11:00:00
Skier 1 skied over skier 2's tracks near a convex, alpine slope just above some open trees. Skier 1 triggered the top ~30cm of storm snow which propagated about 30 m. Skier 1 yelled, and Skier 2 was about 200-300m below skier 1 and was able to avoid avalanche run out. The avy ran out about 300m.