Avalanche: Summit

Our party of 5 booted a fairly short but steep 150’ N/NW aspect to attain the Wilson ridge. Lower slope was fully supportable “knee-high” strugi, upper slope was soft recycled powder. Poor/variable snow quality precluded skiing a bigger aspect, group chose to ski back down booter slope and seek better snow on different aspects. The 4th skier triggered the slab from the top of ski cut and was able to arrest without being carried, skiers 1-3 were below slope on an elevated moraine feature and were able to safely observe. Slope broke out completely in a high speed hard slab that included the lower hard pack strugi, all on the well advertised facet sandwich layer located 12” down.
Of note, this slope provided no indication of instability such as settlement or cracks, and took 5 people booting and 4 descending skiers before releasing.