Front Range
AvalancheDominic Rickicki ยท Apr 20, 2024
Weather
There was an inversion we broke out of around 11,000ft. Above treeline winds were moderate and there was active wind transport. Winds were swirling around the terrain up in the longs cirque and it was hard to give a definitive wind direction. South slopes were noticeably warming around 10:30am while we were exiting the area.
Snowpack
7-10" of new snow throughout most of the terrain. While skinning up the longs peak trail we noticed some pretty isolated cracking in drifts below Chasm Junction. While crossing the steep snowfield above peacock pool we had no activity so we continued to chasm lake, though we were feeling less psyched about being able to actual ski our line because of all the wind transport we were seeing and small signs of cracking. We skinned up the apron of the flying dutchman staying climbers right of the couloir under large cliffs. As we traversed towards the couloir we hit a drift that was approx. 2.5 feet deep and we were getting shooting cracks. The slope was in the low 30's and didn't slide. We stopped at a high point under the cliff near the mouth of the couloir and discussed our plan. While we were discussing we watched avalanche debris run out of the couloir on the apron in front of us. So we skied out and went home.
Avalanche
While stopped at a protected point just outside the mouth of the flying dutchman couloir we saw a natural avalanche run out the apron of the couloir. I couldn't see a crown because vis was obscured, but it was a D1 that I'm pretty sure was a shallow windslab that released naturally.