New Year Natural Avalanche

This size 3 avalanche crossed the grooming at Koko claims near Elkford the evening of January 1st. We find these south facing avalanche paths fascinating! They often don’t appear to have much snow at all in the start zone when you look up, but they get sneaky cross loaded by westerly winds. These avalanche paths have steep narrow tracks that really concentrate the energy of the flowing debris. They often run a surprisingly long distance, right across the grooming and often even up the other side. Fresh storm snow, wind loading and sun are all common natural triggers for these paths. This avalanche may have started with a windslab in the alpine (we couldn’t see the start zone) but it triggered the deep persistent layer (weak snow crystals at base of snowpack) in the track. Signs of large recent natural avalanches like this one are reminding us why we are staying disciplined about our terrain choices in the South Rockies.