Top Hat Avalanches

Quick report

Ride Type

alpineSlopes, steepSlopes

Riding Quality

terrible

Snow Conditions

heavy, windAffected, hard, crusty

Avalanche

Trigger Type

skier

Wind Exposure

noWindExposure

Avalanche Size

1

Trigger Sub Type

accidental

Start Zone Aspect

NE

Vegetation Cover

openSlope

Start Zone Incline

35

Avalanche Character

stormSlab

Crust Near Weak Layer

1

Number Of Avalanches

2-5

Start Zone Elevation

2450

Avalanche Observation

12hrsAgo

Start Zone Elevation Band

alp

Avalanche Occurrence Datetime

2026-01-31T19:00:00.000Z

Our group of 4 skied top hat today. It was warm (around 0) at the parking lot. As we made our way up to the Col, there was around 10cms of fresh snow. On the south aspects the snow was fairly consolidated. When we rolled over the Col into the top hat line, we ended up easily triggering (simply stepping on the slope) multiple storm slab avalanches on the NE aspects of top hat (up to size 1). Anything steep was extremely touchy - with 10-15cm slabs releasing on a solid surface. There was also evidence of a significant natural avalanche cycle - lots of chunder and avalanches up to size 2 had come down in the past 24 hours.