Apparently two riders managed to escape a large hard slab avalanche that they triggered off Double Top Mountain or "Gunsight Peak" in upper Steep Hollow... One rider likely triggered the avalanche from high on the slope and was caught near the top of the avalanche. He managed to stay on his sled and power off the moving slab out and off the northern flank of the avalanche. It looked to me like he was carried a couple hundred vertical feet by the deadly slide before he escaped out into the large eastern face of Double Top. The sled tracks to the right of the avalanche in the photos are telling.... The other rider was climbing lower on the slope when the avalanche occurred and was able to turn his sled downhill and outrun the avalanche.. The broad avalanche piled up deeply at the bottom of the slope, reportedly at least 15 feet deep....

I went up to the site of the near miss on 3-14-2012 and took a few more photos and a few notes about the slope, the avalanche, and the snowpack... A dust layer, most likely from the windy storm at the end of February is apparent high in the crown face. Looked like the avalanche released on a thin weak layer just above another hard dusty layer from the last days of 2011....