Utica creek, pesky wind slab

Quick report

Weather

cold, cloudy

Ride Type

steepSlopes, alpineSlopes, openTrees

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

powder, windAffected

Pursued a west aspect objective today to avoid wind slabs formed by SW then NW wind in the past week. Despite this, we had some small wind slabs trigger at the very top of our run. The few slabs were from crossloading along microterrain ridges on the face we skied. They were triggered by more aggressive turns, with no propagation, and disappeared once we were 150m+ down off the main ridge where wind effects likely moderated. Multiple hand shear tests on the ascent away from the crossloaded lee slopes were nonreactive. It's a good reminder that it's easy to have crossloading windslabs even when trying to selectively ski windward slopes.

Avalanche

Run Length

10

Slab Width

5

Trigger Type

skier

Wind Exposure

crossLoadedSlope

Avalanche Size

1

Slab Thickness

30

Trigger Sub Type

accidental

Start Zone Aspect

W

Vegetation Cover

sparseTrees

Start Zone Incline

37

Avalanche Character

windSlab

Number Of Avalanches

1

Start Zone Elevation

2350

Start Zone Elevation Band

tln

Avalanche Occurrence Datetime

2025-01-12T21:30:00.000Z