Over the course of this extended and delightfully refreshing storm cycle, we've been skiing mid-elevation and largely wind-protected pockets of Millcreek and Neff's where we have continued to see very low density snow stack up with minimal wind effect on top of a snowpack with very prevalent facets and depth hoar. As we continued to find that snow in these areas hadn't consolidated and had no wind slab forming, we continued to buy into that feedback and sought out similar terrain options. This morning we met the end of that narrative in the form of a close call, sighs of relief, and lessons to be learned.

We were on our last lap of the day and had skinned up nearby the spot of the avalanche. As we descended the upper portion of the slope, we continued to get positive feedback (or confirmation bias) that the blower powder hadn't consolidated and was only acting up in the form of loose-snow sloughs when the angle steepened. Both skiers descended partway down the run, then skier 1 cut to the north for a longer fall line. As the skier turned within 20' of a perpendicular rock wall, the slope propagated and fractured along the edge of the cliff 100' down and across the slope, ending at a young pine tree. Skier 1 saw the slide break out, quickly turned away from the moving snow, and was not caught or carried. Skier 2 was not involved in the avalanche. The avalanche ran for 500 feet through dispersed pine trees.

The slope was approximately 35 degrees, northeast facing, and held around 18" of low density powder. The crown was closer to 2' and slid on a firm crust with a thin layer of facets sitting on top. Underneath the thin crust (2-3cm) the snow was entirely faceted. About 50' below the crown, cracks where the slide had impacted below the crust were visible, but the slide did not step into deeper layers below the bed surface at the starting zone.

One of the realizations we've had is that in the previous six weeks of high pressure, we have witnessed the rapid decay of snow in rocky terrain on shaded aspects, which is precisely where the slab was triggered and propagated across.

Another key takeaway is that we're dealing with a very complex landscape currently and Nikki nailed it in her forecast today -- we experienced spatial variability in terrain that seemed very similar to what we had previously traveled and skied, but behaved extremely differently.

In hindsight, we can see how the accumulation of upwards of 16-18" of snow over the past few days has led to increasingly more slab-like behavior as it has settled and received some degree of wind.

Feeling the mountains gave us a free hall pass today, but not counting on any more.

Forecaster Note: thank you for the report. These reports are critical pieces of info. Thanks for the insightful write-up -

Drew