Poked the grizzly

Quick report

Weather

cloudy, sunny, windy

Ride Type

steepSlopes, mellowSlopes, alpineSlopes, sunnySlopes

Riding Quality

amazing

Snow Conditions

deepPowder, hard

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSound, avalancheConditionSlab

Skinned up Teddy Bear trees, saw no signs of instability. Waited at treeline for the visibility to improve in the alpine before continuing towards Papa Bear. Heard a solid whumpf near the summit. It's at this moment that we knew the grizzly was awake. Despite this fair warning we decided to investigate towards grizzly couloir, to get some feedback for the community. With great visibility upon arriving at the top of the couloir we were able to confirm that Papa Bear was ready to shed the coat of storm snow from his den. We decide to get our shovels out and release the expected windslab with a Fridge size chunk of cornice. As expected, the start zone fractured 30cm deep over 30m wide and ran approximately 1000m. We rode down the avy path down the couloir and enjoyed some amazing snow down the drainage. Moral of the story, today was a good reminder that the wind events of the previous days created considerable problems for riders in the alpine. Poke the bear, but be humble! Happy holidays :)

Avalanche

Run Length

1000

Slab Width

20

Trigger Type

skier

Wind Exposure

leeSlope

Avalanche Size

2.5

Slab Thickness

30

Trigger Sub Type

intentional

Start Zone Aspect

SE

Trigger Distance

2

Vegetation Cover

openSlope

Start Zone Incline

45

Avalanche Character

windSlab

Crust Near Weak Layer

1

Number Of Avalanches

1

Start Zone Elevation

2700

Avalanche Observation

12hrsAgo

Weak Layer Crystal Type

facets

Start Zone Elevation Band

alp

Avalanche Occurrence Datetime

2024-12-27T09:04:00.000Z