Front Range

Avalanche

Alton Richardson · Mar 11, 2018 · Front Range

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Weather

Clear skies all day, starting before sunrise. Temperature increased rapidly by 10/10:30am. Dragons Tail Couloir 11,500 ish N/NE

Snowpack

As forecasted, approx. 6/+" of new snow on crust layer.

Avalanche

Approx. 10:15am, a skier triggered the new storm snow on his "first turn after dropping in." He had boot packed to the top and then after triggering the slide, finished his descent. Myself and two other skiers ahead of me, where ascending around 11,300' when we heard the first skier up high yell and then say the snow heading our way. All three of us were able to bail left easily. Slide ran to roughly mid height on the apron above Emerald Lake. Rough guess: R1.5 D2 Skier triggered wind slab release (I didn't finish the boot pack to check it out.) Ran like a dry/loose.