Feather

Avalanche

davidmorisette ยท Nov 17, 2016

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Quick report

Weather
cold, cloudy
Ride Type
mellowSlopes, alpineSlopes
Stayed Away
convexSlopes, steepSlopes
Riding Quality
good
Snow Conditions
powder
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionSlab

Decent snowpack for the time of the year. Getting better lower down but still sporty and bumpy. Lower down the snowpack is well settle and bonded. Notice a major avalanche at Feather bowl where most of the north facing bowl slid.

Avalanche

Run Length
400
Slab Width
150
Trigger Type
natural
Wind Exposure
leeSlope
Avalanche Size
2.5
Slab Thickness
60
Start Zone Aspect
NW, N
Vegetation Cover
openSlope
Avalanche Character
stormSlab, windSlab
Number Of Avalanches
1
Start Zone Elevation
1700
Runout Zone Elevation
1500
Avalanche Observation
moreThan48hrsAgo
Start Zone Elevation Band
alp
Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
2016-11-16T12:00:00

Slab avalanche in Feather peak bowl, most of the bowl slid (skiers right half and below sub-peak). Crown had been partially buried by new deposited storm snow, fracture surface was not inspected. Ran all the way to the usual skin track 'traverse' and beyond. 3 m++ debris height. Likely occurred a few days before the trip, during the Nov 11-12 storm cycle is most likely scenario. Heavy wet snow fell (30 cm+ at road elevation) with strong south wind. It looks like it slid near the ground in the trigger zone just below the ridge. Potentially on early season depth hoar that could have formed during the late october cold spell on a shallow snowpack. No observations on other north aspects (i.e. Cleveland) due to localized cloud cover.