Avalanche: Hatcher Pass

Location: Independence Mine

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Toured up and past the mine. Above the mine the snowpack turns into a pretty upside down setup. About an inch of facets at ground level, followed by an inch or so of crust, followed by another inch of facets and then about four inches of newish snow. The big thing to report though is we had another group touring up the road toward the pass that remote triggered what we are assuming was a wind slab. Hopefully they will report their own observation (forecaster note: avalanche was reported by party and is on observation list) but either way once we regrouped at the cars, they had pictures of a slide that was about 50 ft. wide and about a foot deep. As they toured up the road the slide was on their left side, at the pass proper—so north/northeasterly aspect.

Avalanche Details
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Trigger SkierRemote Trigger0
Avalanche Type Soft SlabAspect North Northeast
Elevation 4000ftSlope Angleunknown
Crown Depth 12inWidth 50ft
Vertical Rununknown  
Avalanche Details

This is all second hand info so I'll stick to exactly what I was told and saw in the pictures. Our other group said that they heard a whumph from the road, then heard the slide to their left.

Red Flags
Red flags are simple visual clues that are a sign of potential avalanche danger. Please record any sign of red flags below.
Obvious signs of instability
Recent Avalanches?No
Collapsing (Whumphing)?Yes
Cracking (Shooting cracks)?No
Weather & Snow Characteristics
Please provide details to help us determine the weather and snowpack during the time this observation took place.
Weather

Strong winds from the south, poor viz, blowing snow, in the thirties at the parking lot, low twenties above 3500 ft.