| Trigger | Skier | Remote Trigger | 0 |
| Avalanche Type | Hard Slab | Aspect | East Southeast |
| Elevation | 3500ft | Slope Angle | unknown |
| Crown Depth | 10in | Width | 30ft |
| Vertical Run | 30ft |
Avalanche: Hatcher Pass
Location: Eldorado and Skyscraper
Highly variable. Nice powder in the flats, highly variable on the way up. Mixed hollow wind board, soft wind blown snow, ice crusts. Anti tracks in Eldorado bowl.
Avalanche Details
Skiing from the summit to an east facing chute on skyscraper, there was mixed wind board, settled powder, and ice crusts. One pocket of wind board popped off, about 30x30ft. Then chute held some decent settled snow and some ice crust.
Obvious signs of instability
| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | Yes |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Observer Comments
Very small natural wind slab avalanches here and there.
Weather
Sunny, calm wind, in the single digit temps.
Snow surface
Highly variable. Windblown powder, wind crusts, ice crusts.
Snowpack
Did 2 column tests at the summit of skyscraper - not very representative of the slope. But shows how variable the snow pack is depending on where you are. 1st pit yielded a result after 13 taps, broke under the 8" of wind slab, which stayed as a cohesive layer. 2nd pit yielded no result after 30.
Once we got into the east facing Skyscraper chute, it was settled powder with an ice crust between about 4" of settled powder on either side.
Chute on Skyscraper
30x30ft wind slab