The Dragon Sleeps...for now

La qualité du hors-piste était:

Excellente

Les conditions de neige étaient :

• Poudreuse
• Affectée par le vent

Nous avons parcouru:

• Pentes alpines
• Forêt dense
• Pentes de faible inclinaison
• Forêt dégagée

Nous sommes restés à l'écart de:

• Pentes convexes

La journée était:

• Nuageuse

Conditions d'avalanche

• Whoumfs ou bruits sourds ou fissures qui se propagent.

The dragon sleeps... but may wake up if you poke it in the right spot.

Experienced some very substantial whumpfs on N / NE slopes at 2100m. Very loud, wide, and could feel the snow drop under our skis! Shooting cracks for 10+ meters in some spots.

Dug a profile to see what's up:

CTE3 - sudden collapse - Jan 28 MF crust (3cm thick) was breaking and collapsing on significant facets layer under it (5+cm). Upper snow column dropping 2cm when it failed.

Crust was down 45-50cm on Feb 10th, so deeper now.

3 tap easy result and whumpfs were on lee slopes that had wind loaded, increasing load and pushing the crust to a tipping point. Much safer results in protected areas.

Despite the reactivity, whumpfs, and cracks, there were zero naturals observed and we were not able to ski cut any avalanches.