Size 2 avalanche, North Bowl south end of Hector S Ridge

Avalanche date/time

Thursday, January 7, 2021 at 14:00

Number of avalanches in this report

1

The size of avalanche

2

Slab thickness

50cm

Slab width

150m

Run length

200m

Avalanche Character

• Storm slab

Trigger type

Skier

Trigger subtype

Accidental

Remote trigger distance

20m

Start zone aspect

• NE

Start zone elevation band

• Alpine

Wind exposure

Lee slope

Vegetation cover

Open slope

4 of us were skiing on the south end of Hector S Ridge (“Hector Point”). We noticed no signs of instability on our way up. No signs of natural avalanches were seen.

We evaluated the snow below the cornice (we dug 3 pits a few meters down the slope, all essentially showing sluffing of storm snow CTM and deep planar sheer CTH). We also broke pieces of the cornice to see if they would trigger anything as they tumbled. No reaction.

2 skiers went down with now issues, settlements or cracks. There were no wind slabs on the slope. They stopped low enough to avoid the toe of the debris.

The third skier triggered the slide remotely, approx. 20m below him. Luckily he had a radio and his spotter told him in time to stop him from reaching the crown. He then skied down to the slide path and immediately crossed skiers left on the slide surface to lower angle snow slopes.

Luckily, no one was hurt, swept, or buried.

While the skier did no hang around to do an analysis of the layer that propagated, the crown was 50-60 cm deep, which did not shown anything in the pits. We thus conclude this is wind-transported storm snow that accumulated well beyond the 25cm s’en in the pit, and “sluffed”.