| Trigger | Skier | Remote Trigger | No |
| Avalanche Type | Hard Slab | Aspect | East Southeast |
| Elevation | 2800ft | Slope Angle | 38deg |
| Crown Depth | 8in | Width | 20ft |
| Vertical Run | 100ft |
Avalanche: Summit
Location: Colorado
We skinned up to 2900′ and dug on NE and SE aspects. We found reactive wind slabs 3-10″ deep as we got above treeline. We got shooting cracks, poor stability test results, and were able to get an old wind slab to release with a ski cut on a steep, wind-loaded rollover.
Avalanche Details
I ski cut a wind slab on a small but steep convexity. The wind slab failed on top of a layer of near-surface facets, which was about 6-10" deep.
Weather
There was an inversion all day, with temperatures near 0 F at the parking lot at 10:00, and around 15 F at 2900' at noon. Valley fog stuck around until around 2:00, and skies were clear above about 1800' all day. Winds were calm, with an occasional light southeasterly breeze.
Snow surface
There was 4-6" soft snow at the surface up to about 2700', where there was an abrupt transition to various wind textures and lots of very stiff slabs.
Snowpack
The snowpack is quite variable above treeline at Colorado. Here's what we found in our pits:
NE aspect, 2900' (total depth 3-4')
-6-10" thick, stiff wind slab on top of a thin layer of faceted snow. The bottom 2-3' of the snowpack was apparently all wind-packed, with 1-finger to pencil hard snow all the way down to the ground.
-ECTP18 failed on the near-surface facets, about 10" deep.
SE aspect, 2890' (total depth 8-9')
-A skiff of soft snow sitting on a thin, knife-hard wind slab. The wind slab was sitting on a layer of faceted snow.
-There was a layer of decomposing precip particles, with some facets, buried 1.5-2' deep. We got CT23 and CT19 on this layer, both tests were Q2 and PC.
6-10" crown of a skier-triggered wind slab avalanche. 02.08.2021
Looking downslope at the debris from the same avalanche. 02.08.2021
Shooting crack on a wind pillow. 02.08.2021
Anti-tracks on a wind-scoured ridge (foreground). Newer wind slab avalanches had released on top of the older avalanche from last monday (background). 02.08.2021
View to the north, with a thick layer of valley fog. 02.08.2021
Large cornice fall above Roaring Ridge. 02.08.2021