Avalanche: Hatcher Pass

Location: Hatch peak, Hatchers Pass

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

We skinned up North side of 4068 and headed for 4600 along ridge when avi happened.

 

Contact, Location & General Observations
Enter your contact information and a location for this observation. Note that you can submit anonymously, however if you would like to share your name with staff, but not the public, select No for "May we include your name in your observation"
Forecaster Comments

This slab was triggered after the rider jumped the rock adjacent to crown, and thumped (landed) on slope. We believe this was a small soft slab avalanche. Small soft slab avalanches are unlikely as a widespread problem, but will be possible in very isolated locations. We identified buried, weak, old wind formed slabs under the Feb 2-3 snow sitting on weak faceted snow, which are the likely culprit. We saw some of these fail during and just after the last storm, example: Skyscraper, Liam's Run, NE, 4000' and Rae Wallace apron NW, 4000'. The small size and softness of these slabs will resemble loose dry avalanches in every aspect other than the crown and small propagation, as the slabs are barely cohesive enough to act as slabs. With hundreds of tracks in very concentrated areas over the last 4 days, this is one of two human triggered slab avalanche we are aware of at this time, and in our opinion this is a pertinent negative for heightened slab avalanche danger. Details on the other small slab are yet to be confirmed.

Avalanche Details
If this is an avalanche observation, click yes below and fill in the form as best as you can. If people were involved, please provide details.
Trigger SkierRemote Trigger Yes
Avalanche Type UnknownAspect Unknown
Elevation 4200ftSlope Angleunknown
Crown DepthunknownWidthunknown
Vertical Rununknown  
Near Miss / Accident Details
Avalanche Details

Observe skier remote triggered avalanche as they came over a rock outcropping. We were across the valley and could not determine any other details than those that I've included.

Photos & Video
Please upload photos below. Maximum of 5 megabytes per image. Click here for help on resizing images. If you are having trouble uploading please email images separately to staff.