Front Range
AvalancheAnonymous · Jan 3, 2016 · Front Range
Weather
clear, calm, beautiful day
Snowpack
clear signs of loading beneath cornices and high up in Current Creek Bowls. Small natural on NE side of the knob (shown in picture)
Avalanche
We topped out on Moonlight coming from the 110s (flat spot on Hidden Knob). As we did, observed 2 skiers crossing midslope under the corniced ridge above us. Looking back toward Russell, we saw their skin track start from the saddle below top of West Ridge and face of Russell. They cut under N. Chutes, under all of Current Creek Bench and Bowls, all about midslope. When we saw them they were trying a high diagonal to gain the knob above Moonlight. If you look at the picture there was a small natural on that very knob and their traverse would have taken them through the debris. They were struggling to maintain an edge and stopped just past the cornice but under (what we deemed to be) the very loaded slope. They were never separated by more than 10 yards or so. They took off skis. Skier 2 sat down and took out a shovel and seemed to be digging out a platform (to put skis on?). Skier 1 was standing, took skis off, punched them tail end in the snow (in the pic you can see a small slab release around where he was standing). He then shouldered his skis and booted straight up. He was maybe 3-5 feet to lookers right of his seated partner so basically above him. I thought that he would never make it either due to 1) too steep and he would slip or 2) the slope would release. He was kicking hard and made it higher than i thought, and about 6 feet from the top the slope released. It was lighting fast and he ended up getting carried down in a matter of seconds. The pictures tell the story. We yelled to see if they were alright.