Observation: Public

Name:

Steven

Observation Date:

April 10, 2022

Submitted:

April 10, 2022

Zone or Region:

Snoqualmie Pass

Activity:

Skiing/Snowboarding

Location:

Roaring Ridge: Christmas Tree Bowl/East Bowl

Did you trigger any avalanches?

Yes

Was it intentional?

No

Avalanche Type:

Soft Slab

Size:

Size 1: Relatively harmless to people

Elevation:

3800'

Aspect:

NE

Comments:

We triggered numerous D1 soft slabs that failed in the new storm snow. One D1.5ish 100' wide slab (not pictured - sorry) broke just above me and pushed me a few dozen feet down the slope. Photographed a D1 avalanche that was easier to get to. That broke about 35cm down in about 50cm of new snow. There wasn't any noticeable change in density through the slab. The bed surface had a lot of graupel grains on it. The slope angle at the start was about 35 degrees.

None reported

Traveled on Roaring Ridge on East Bowl and Christmas Tree Bowl from about 0900 to 1400.

There was about 20 to 50cm new snow below to near treeline with up to 70cm in isolated areas. We didn’t observe alpine terrain. We didn’t observe much evidence at all of wind transport.

We saw lots of reactive storm instabilities. It was very easy to produce size D1 soft slabs that seemed to fail in the storm snow on most convex rollovers. One D1.5ish, feature-sized slab broke just above me and gave me a bit of a push. At least where we were, we didn't observe natural avalanche activity.

Didn't notice obvious changes in density or weak layers in the slab on top of the crust. I saw a bunch of graupel grains on the bed surface.

Example of D1 sized soft slab near the top of East Bowl

The slab failed about ~35cm down in ~50cm storm snow.