Front Range

Avalanche

Anonymous ยท Jan 18, 2020

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Weather

Overcast, light wind West to east

Snowpack

3-4" fresh, some wind deposited snow. Snowpack failed on a weak faceted/sugary layer ~18" off the ground. No cornices or obvious bulges before the slide, but avalanche crown indicated significant localized wind loading.

Avalanche

Skier triggered (possibly dog triggered?). Skier 1 stayed close to trees on skier's left to avoid obvious steep rollover and terrain trap to the right and stopped at prearranged safe location. Skier 2 paralleled skier 1's turns with dog following. As skier 2 reached safe location both skiers looked up to see a large slab release. Failure propagated roughly 70m wide and ran roughly 70m. Dog was descending near the two small trees to skier's right and was buried. After a visual and probe search dog was extracted with no apparent injuries.