Observation Glades Avalanche

This was an attempt to trigger something on this slope that resulted in a much larger event than was expected. The slab initiated after the first skier had skied about 30-40m away from the second skier and propagated past the second skier's feet and up the crest of the ridge above him another 30m. The skier skied sideways along the ridge crest jumping up and down to try to get something going often with very little ski penetration from wind scouring. There were two planes in the crown with a superficial wind slab on the Jan facet /crust layers 20-40 deep and the November facets stepping down to the ground 60-70cm deep at the crown. General snowpack depths in sheltered locations nearby were a little over 1 meter while the ridge crest was scoured to very little as usual.