We were traversing along the base of triangle peak when we got to a steeper open zone that was flanked by the east most wall of triangle peak. We quickly transitioned and skied down, hugging the wall, into the lower gully, planning on continuing our traverse over into the next drainage.

I skied the shot first, and my partner followed. as he got to our safe zone at the bottom, we noticed the slab break up above us. Luckily we were in a safe location and were able to stay far away from the debris.

The slide that occurred was a rather consolidated slab that formed as a result of spin drifting snow that deposited into the opening from the steep walls above us. It failed on the old/new snow interface, up to 3ft deep, but averaging around 8". It broke about 200 feet wide, staying mostly near the wall- propagated about 400 feet down and carried enough debris into the trees to cause trouble.

I would like to chalk it up to kind of a fluke as we had been skiing similar aspects with no problem- however there were clearly mistakes in our decision making and we thoroughly addressed them.

we feel that our take away from this is as follows:

pay attention to areas where snow can be deposited much more significantly than just the storm (spindrift, slough, wind) and the tendencies of these to form slab characteristics that will move with much more kinetic energy than anticipated.

do not underestimate any terrain trap- trees especially.

treat every area you are skiing just as seriously as your main objective, even if it is just a small little innocuous spot along the way.

Grateful for the mountains providing us a humbling teaching moment without any harm done.