Richardson Ridge Size 3 Skier Remote
Quick reportAlex Wright · Mar 22, 2024 · Glacier
Quick report
- Weather
- cloudy
- Ride Type
- alpineSlopes, convexSlopes, denseTrees, mellowSlopes, sunnySlopes
- Stayed Away
- openTrees, steepSlopes
- Riding Quality
- good
- Snow Conditions
- powder
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSnow, avalancheConditionSound
At 10AM our party of two began the ascent of Richardson ridge via the NE shoulder of Corral chute 3. We added a stop in lower Corral 1 for turns in 15 cm of powder on top of the March 20th crust. At 12PM we took temps: -5 in upper storm snow and -10 air temp in the shade. We rounded the NE shoulder of Corral 3 at 2400m where the March 20th crust was softer and not obvious under the ski. Multiple hasty tests in the alpine included hard hand shears 50cm down, presumably on the Feb 3rd crust; HS 100+ cm. We spaced out 30m and began climbing the shoulder. As we crossed the first obvious rock band at 2430m only the rear skier felt a small local whumpf typical of facets around boulders. As the lead skier doubled back over the same rock band both skiers experienced large audible whumpfs, 5 seconds later a wide skier remote size 3 avalanche propagated 300m to the west from a few meters below Richardson Ridge sliding to ground and stopping in a terrain trap below us. We believe the failure initiated on facets sitting on the Feb 3rd crust, exacorbated by buried surface hour around the rocks that may have stepped down to January surface hoar. There was no skier involvement.
Weather
- Avg Temp
- -5
- Min Temp
- -10
- Wind Speed
- windSpeedCalm
- Sky Condition
- brokenClouds
- New Snow24 Hours
- 15
- Temperature Trend
- rising
- Precipitation Type
- snow
Avalanche
- Run Length
- 170
- Slab Width
- 100
- Trigger Type
- skier
- Wind Exposure
- windwardSlope
- Avalanche Size
- 3
- Slab Thickness
- 100
- Trigger Sub Type
- remote
- Start Zone Aspect
- N
- Trigger Distance
- 300
- Vegetation Cover
- openSlope
- Start Zone Incline
- 25
- Avalanche Character
- deepPersistentSlab
- Crust Near Weak Layer
- 1
- Number Of Avalanches
- 1
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2550
- Runout Zone Elevation
- 2380
- Weak Layer Burial Date
- 2024-02-03
- Avalanche Observation
- 12hrsAgo
- Weak Layer Crystal Type
- surfaceHoarAndFacets
- Start Zone Elevation Band
- alp
- Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
- 2024-03-22T18:30:00.000Z
At 10AM our party of two began the ascent of Richardson ridge via the NE shoulder of Corral chute 3. We added a stop in lower Corral 1 for turns in 15 cm of powder on top of the March 20th crust. At 12PM we took temps: -5 in upper storm snow and -10 air temp in the shade. We rounded the NE shoulder of Corral 3 at 2400m where the March 20th crust was softer and not obvious under the ski. Multiple hasty tests in the alpine included hard hand shears 50cm down, presumably on the Feb 3rd crust; HS 100+ cm. We spaced out 30m and began climbing the shoulder. As we crossed the first obvious rock band at 2430m only the rear skier felt a small local whumpf typical of facets around boulders. As the lead skier doubled back over the same rock band both skiers experienced large audible whumpfs, 5 seconds later a wide skier remote size 3 avalanche propagated 300m to the west from a few meters below Richardson Ridge sliding to ground and stopping in a terrain trap below us. We believe the failure initiated on facets sitting on the Feb 3rd crust, exacorbated by buried surface hour around the rocks that may have stepped down to January surface hoar. There was no skier involvement.