Full path avy in Melissa's zone on Duffey

Carte pour le rapport du Réseau d'information en montagne: Full path avy in Melissa's zone on Duffey

Conditions de neige

La qualité du hors-piste était:
OK
Les conditions de neige étaient :
  • Croûtée
  • Lourde
  • Mouillée
  • Affectée par le vent
Nous avons parcouru:
  • Pentes alpines
Nous sommes restés à l'écart de:
  • Pentes convexes
  • Pentes raides

Information

La journée était:
  • Nuageuse
  • Chaude
  • Mouillée
  • Venteuse

Commentaires

We accidentally triggered a full path avalanche in the Melissa’s zone on the Duffey on Saturday under "moderate" avy conditions. It was on the southern, wider Melissa’s line. We were the 8th and 9th people to ski the zone but were attempting to ski the ridge to avoid going into the bowl feature, ostensibly to stay safe. Slide released from pretty much the top of the skiers left ridge feature and took most of the snow from the skiers left side of the bowl. Crown was about 20-30cm at the deepest points of the release. Likely ran as a wind slab on a crust layer given the west facing aspect but I could be wrong. I was on the slab when it released but it was relatively slow moving so I was able to ski off of it pretty quick onto the underlayer but not without getting quite frightened in the process. In the pic you can see where ski tracks appear magically. I’m guessing size 2 or 3 but I don’t really know how to measure that so happy to let the experts weigh in on that.