Vail & Summit County

Avalanche

The skiers that triggered it said they would submit an obs and they grabbed some hopefully better pictures during a break in the weather. We skied the south gully east of pt 12414 at around 9:30. I had remembered the line seeming quite mellow in the past, and it felt mellow this time. I wouldn't have thought anything of it if the other party hadn't had their slide. It goes through a 3 or 4 turns of low-mid 30s terrain. Anyhow, 6 of us skied it without incident. We then skied around closer to no name for a few hours. As the weather closed in, we headed back to hippie trees around 12:30 and a partner noted the slide(s) that had covered our earlier tracks from the side. We ended up catching up with the party that triggered it the next lap. A direct report from them might be clearer, but this is my interpretation. They seemed pretty green to backcountry skiing, so I prompted them a bit on some of the terminology to try and understand. They said they skied near our tracks (a few meters here could make a difference...) down to a safe zone (no one was caught) . The triggering skiers partner said the slide broke 40' or so above the skier, propagating across the initial SE face. Probably r2, d1.5 from the looks of it. That slide sympathetically triggered another r1,d1 adjacent. Finally, that triggered a larger r3, d2.5 ish slide that went into the terrain trap gully below. Elevation is 12k. We exited the zone adjacent to the slide, but it was too socked in go a great view. I've noted the slide on the attached map. To me, this slide is indicative of pretty darn touchy conditions. Certainly has me reevaluating our day...