Front Range
AvalancheAnonymous · Apr 5, 2021 · Front Range
Weather
Partly cloudy and breezy. Warming during the day to probably mid 40's. S & S/E facing slope below Pettingale Peak. Elevation: Top of slide at @ 12,900 base at @ 12,000. Based on map observations not an altimeter at the time.
Snowpack
Hard & solid. Had clearly been frozen and rethawed several times.
Avalanche
Sunday March 5th went up to Herman Gulch with the thought of skiing some corn snow on some moderately low angle snow that we had seen on a previous trip in to that area. When we got there we found this slide had happened. I’d guess the slide was 250 yards across and 250-300 yards top to bottom at the highest point. I also would have guessed that the slope was mid 20 degrees on the lookers left and into the low 30’s on the lookers right. The volume of the slide just looked huge and the undulations in the debris pile were really large. Probably 8' -12' in some areas. Some of the bigger blocks appear to be bigger than large cars. I appeared to us that a good chunk of the slide went all the way to the ground. We were guessing that the crown at the top of the slide (peak height) was probably 4-8’ but really tough to tell. The blocks up high were huge and jumbled. I just wanted to pass this as an observation. We have both skied in the backcountry for many years and this seemed like the biggest slide we had seen. Our guess is that this happened in the 24-48 hours prior to our trip after a very warm day (probably in the 50’s), it was E/SE facing and it appears that it was a snow deposition zone on the lee side of the ridge. We didn't feel there would be any rescue from a slide like this. We are guessing that it slid as a unit at first and then broke up as the mass moved and gained velocity. Pictures attached.