McMurdo

Quick report

Weather

stormy, warm

Ride Type

openTrees

Stayed Away

alpineSlopes

Riding Quality

amazing

Snow Conditions

deepPowder

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSnow

Class 3 slide propagated around two alpine bowls separated by a 100m wide, 28 degree, well supported alpine slope. Ran full path in the bowls and to treeline on the ridge separating the bowls. Total slab width 400m+ (hard to see the full extent due to the poor visibility). Slab depth 70-120cm. Ran on well preserved surface hoar. Did not appear to start as a new snow instability, although we could not see the entire fracture line due to the poor visibility. The crown we observed was right down to the surface hoar. On Jan 27th two surface hoar layers down approximately 70 and 120 cm failed on compression test mod-hard with sudden planar failures (NW slope at 2250m - Beverly chutes - open trees). No sign of surface instability in the 3 days prior to the slide. Snowed 5-10 cm per day for the 3 days prior to the slide, with strong alpine winds and calm in the valley. Temp for the 3 days previous to the slide -6, temp during the slide approx. -2. The only thing that didn't run was the deep powder in the thick trees. Snow in the alpine was heavily wind affected.