Avalanche: Chugach State Park

Location: Near North Bowl (South Fork Eagle River)

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Remote trigger- nobody involved.
Propagated uphill several hundred meters to release rollover. Crown varied from 2-3 feet to 5-6 feet due to lots of wind loading. Couldn’t accurately gauge width from our vantage point, but it was well more than 1000 meters. Ran to the ground in many areas, or on very hard bed surface. Looked like two fairly cohesive layers that were sitting on top of that persisting deep instability. There was some hangfire on the flank, so we skirted the perimeter to the bottom, where we did a hasty beacon search recieving no signals. We switched back and skinned back over Hunter Pass and skied back to the South Fork trailhead.

Contact, Location & General Observations
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Forecaster Comments

A big thank you to this group for passing along their information from this very large avalanche. Also, much credit is due for taking the extra time to make sure no other people were caught that may have been in the area.

Avalanche Details
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Trigger SkierRemote Trigger Yes
Avalanche Type Hard SlabAspect Northwest
Elevation 2900ftSlope Angle 25deg
Crown Depth4ftWidthunknown
Vertical Run 1000ft  
Avalanche Details

While skinning up the lookers right ridge of North Bowl, we approached the flank of the rollover basin. We were starting to notice the hollow and punchy snow quality that was on the lookers right side of the valley. As we turned on to the slightly more west facing aspect from the lower north slope, the snow underneath collapsed with a light whumpf. Also a small fracture line propagated to my left up the hill. Stopping immediately each member of our group acknowledged the conditions. As we checked on each other; we saw the upper roll, on the bowl above and around the corner from us, release. We watched the whole slope run, slow but powerful. It was a large and fairly destructive slide. Nobody involved. We skied to the bottom of the debris and checked the areas that were out of view from our first vantage point. No signals or evidence present, as we used our beacons for a quick search. We were the last vehicles leaving the trailhead also.

Photos & Video
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