Fraser avalanche crown profile

The field team investigated the crown of one of several skier remoted and snowmobile triggered avalanches on the south facing terrain above Bryant Lake that occurred over the weekend. These persistent slab avalanches ranged in size from 2-2.5 and released in wind loaded terrain on a layer of facets above a crust down 90-150cm. All three avalanches were triggered from thin spots. Several other old natural loose wet and slab avalanches were also observed in south faceing alpine terrain See snowpack description for more details.

The upper meter of the snowpack consists of several laminated old windslabs and thin (2cm thick) weak faceted layers down 50, 70 and 90cm. The lowest of these facet layers sits below a thin crust, and was the failure plane in the avalanche observed.