| Trigger | Natural | Remote Trigger | Unknown |
| Avalanche Type | Soft Slab | Aspect | North Northwest |
| Elevation | 4000ft | Slope Angle | 35deg |
| Crown Depth | unknown | Width | unknown |
| Vertical Run | 175ft |
Avalanche: Hatcher Pass
Location: Independence Mine Area
AAS Level One class snowpack day. We had a group below El Dorado Bowl, one group directly west of the mine, and one group on the shoulder of Microdot. Beautiful day, a lot of people skiing what appeared to be beautiful powder. We observed a lot of dry loose avalanches on steep slopes and natural wind slabs on north and northwesterly slopes near the ridge tops.
Avalanche Details
We observed wind slabs on many north and northwest facing aspects just below ridgeline.
We also observed widespread soft slab avalanches on solar aspects that originated at the rocks. All avalanches we observed were D1 in size. However, it looked like Idaho and Punk Spines had a few larger wind slabs, dry loose, or soft slabs that could have been in the D2 range.
Obvious signs of instability
| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Weather
Sunny, calm wind, 15 degrees
Snow surface
Beautiful powder
Snowpack
Average snow depth was around 170cm
In all pits, we found rightside-up structure, new snow on top of rounds and small, rounding facets at the ground. The group near the mine and the group on the shoulder of Microdot found ice lenses around 40cm, 60cm, and 90cm from the surface.
All around, every group found good strength and low energy in the snowpack. We had multiple CT results on what we believe were interfaces between layers of new and old snow. Most CT results collapsed in the 10-20 range and were Q3. One pit out or 18 had an ECTN26 20cm from the surface. This pit was on the shoulder of Microdot.
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