January 8, 2006, Tatoosh MRNP

1/8/06

WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)

2595

3

Posted by ajjenkin on 1/9/06 3:22am

Great day skiing up around The Castle yesterday except for one of our party almost getting caught in a small slide. Slide occured on our last run. We were heading back down to the Steven's Canyon Highway. Bad decision making allowed us to be lured onto a N/NE facing (approx. 25-30 deg) slope. The vertical drop of this small slope was about 200'. Given the terrain and the previous night's S/SW winds, this slope had a 8-10" wind slab on it. A party member triggered the appox. 100'x80' slide after a couple of turns, but avoided getting caught in the slide. The diamond shaped slab released, broke-up, and ran slowly for about 50 yards.

Some more info here:

http://www.angelfire.com/folk/ajjenkin

Click on "1/8/2006, Tatoosh Avy Report"

1/9/06 5:56pm

ron-j

ajjenkin, Thanks for posting this - it's always good to hear about avy activity. Glad no one was caught in it.
So was that the thickness of the slab/height of the crown... about 8-10 inches?

1/9/06 10:14pm

ajjenkin

Your welcome. Given talk of such "bomber" layers on Sunday, I thought it would be educational to bring this up. Yes. 8-10 inch crown with a velvety smooth bed surface. Things have probably significantly changed up there by now...

1/9/06 11:49pm

md2020

definitely wasn't bomber up there. We were at Paradise on Sun and there was obvious wind slab. I don't remember coming across any 8-10" layers but 4-6" was common. Backbowl was all wind slab towards the top half but down below was nice fluff.

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