Large Collapse near Fairy Lake

Fairy Lake
Bridger Range
Code
SS-ASu-O
Notes

From e-mail: "We went up to Fairy Lake yesterday... to the north facing trees right off of the lake.  The wind has really done a number on the whole area, I haven't seen it like this before.  Anyway we started up and the snow was really weird.  We'd be on top of a hard wind slab and then ten feet later punch through it and be wallowing in sugar up to our knees.... the weirdness continued as we tried working east and west across the face looking for more stable snow.  After we'd climbed about 350 feet above the lake I had a big whoomp and the snow I was on collapsed about a foot, and cracks shot out about 50 feet from me. This was at about 8:30 yesterday morning."

Seperate group, same area: "ECTP 3 on a northwest exposure. Snow depth was about 60 cm where this test was taken. Dug another pit on same aspect with a 120cm base, which fractured at 27 hits, but did not propegate."

Number of slides
1
Number caught
0
Number buried
0
Avalanche Type
Soft slab avalanche
Trigger
Skier
Trigger Modifier
u-An unintentional release
Bed Surface
O - Old snow
Problem Type
Persistent Weak Layer
Slab Thickness units
centimeters
Single / Multiple / Red Flag
Single Avalanche
Advisory Year