Front Range
AvalancheKirtis Courkamp · Mar 18, 2023 · Front Range
Weather
New snow during the week but our conditions were bluebird with light winds
Snowpack
Medium to soft-density snow.
Avalanche
Triggered a wind slab avalanche in the elevator shaft couloir on the S face of Hallets peak. We noticed some signs of a small slab in the 6-7 hand pits we were digging on the way up but no cracking or wumphing, and decided that the conditions were not alarming. As we continued up the couloir, we started to notice more signs of instability in the hand pits so we decided to bail and head down. As we were digging out our transition area where we bailed from, we heard a wumph. A few hundred feet down from our high point, we triggered a shallow wind slab avalanche. The crown was 2-5 inches and propagated about 25-30 feet across most of the face. I was carried roughly 5 feet before self-arresting, while the avalanche continued for about 500-600 feet to the bottom of the apron.