Zoa Treeline

Avalanche

adamrodrigues11 · Feb 20, 2023 · Coquihalla

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Observation photo 1Observation photo 2

Quick report

Weather
windy, stormy
Ride Type
mellowSlopes, denseTrees, openTrees
Stayed Away
steepSlopes, convexSlopes
Riding Quality
good
Snow Conditions
powder, windAffected
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionSlab

Late post - for skiing Monday Feb 20th at Zoa at treeline and below. Strong gusting winds, increasing in intensity throughout the day caused significant wind transport and formation of wind slabs on all NW-NE aspects that we observed (excluding very dense trees). Only a few cm of accumulation all day. We expected touchy slabs and did not plan to ski any slopes >30deg. A ski cut on a short 30deg NE aspect around 1700m at a slight convexity confirmed this and produced the avalanche shown. It propagated further than anticipated and was a good reminder to keep test slopes much smaller and to avoid testing the limits of what is safe to ski too much. Afterwards, we stuck to only well supported slopes <25deg and avoided all overhead hazard.

Avalanche

Run Length
30
Slab Width
25
Trigger Type
skier
Wind Exposure
leeSlope
Avalanche Size
1.5
Trigger Sub Type
intentional
Start Zone Aspect
NE
Vegetation Cover
sparseTrees
Start Zone Incline
30
Avalanche Character
windSlab
Number Of Avalanches
1
Start Zone Elevation
1700
Weak Layer Crystal Type
stormSnow
Start Zone Elevation Band
tln
Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
2023-02-20T19:30:00.000Z