Dozens of small wind slab avys on the way to Rae Glacier
Avalanchebrendan.clark · Oct 29, 2023 · Highwood Pass
Quick report
- Riding Quality
- terrible
While walking up to Rae Glacier (we were hiking in boots, nowhere near enough snow for skiing), we popped out about a dozen size 0.5 avalanches on a stiff wind slab layer. The propagation was surprisingly far - up to 10m in spots. The slab was surprisingly thick, up to 20cm. We were in no danger because of the simple terrain and lack of snow depth - but this could have easily been more serious in a steeper terrain feature with a terrain trap or above an ice climb. Avalanche season is here!
Avalanche
- Run Length
- 1
- Slab Width
- 10
- Trigger Type
- skier
- Wind Exposure
- leeSlope
- Avalanche Size
- 1
- Slab Thickness
- 20
- Trigger Sub Type
- accidental
- Vegetation Cover
- openSlope
- Avalanche Character
- windSlab
- Number Of Avalanches
- 11-50
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2300
- Weak Layer Burial Date
- 2023-10-24
- Start Zone Elevation Band
- alp
- Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
- 2023-10-30T05:30:00.000Z
While walking up to Rae Glacier (we were hiking in boots, nowhere near enough snow for skiing), we popped out about a dozen size 0.5 avalanches on a stiff wind slab layer. The propagation was surprisingly far - up to 10m in spots. The slab was surprisingly thick, up to 20cm. We were in no danger because of the simple terrain and lack of snow depth - but this could have easily been more serious in a steeper terrain feature with a terrain trap or above an ice climb. Avalanche season is here!