Northwest Avalanche Center

Observation: Public

All Observations

Observation Details

Name:
Primomo/Carrasco
Observation Date:
March 11, 2023
Submitted:
March 11, 2023
Zone or Region:
East Central
Activity:
Skiing/Snowboarding
Location:
West Path Cannon Mountain

Observed Avalanches

Did you observe any avalanches? 
Yes
Avalanche Type:
Hard Slab
Size:
Size 3: Could bury and destroy a car, damage a truck, destroy a wood frame house, or break a few trees
Elevation:
7200
Aspect:
NW
Comments:
We found a pair of D3's had run recently on the W Face of Cannon. One of these was likely on night of 3/9, the other may have been yesterday (3/10) or last night with the stronger westerly winds.
Quite a few broken and bent over trees to 14" diameter. The larger and most recent slide ran over the bench with debris making it down to 4,400ft.
Avy entry here: https://nwac.us/public-obs/20230311_west-path-cannon-mountain/
Photo:

Signs of Unstable Snow

None reported

Observations

We found deep new snow with ski pen knee deep, and a thin crust on everything but direct N aspects. Found some wind stiffened pockets in open exposed areas BTL, but minimal reactivity.
Went up planning to ski some trees and pillows in the area. We stumbled into the debris tongue of a very large recent natural and decided to follow it up a bit for a closer look.

Media

N side of Wedge Mountain with WL slides that likely occurred on 3/10. A crown is apparent near the choke of the couloir as well.
View up to the W Face of Cannon. Deeper crown had pulled out in the trees beneath the most recent deeper slab.
A very deep crown off the W Face of Cannon.
Lookers R deep crown off W Face of Cannon.
View up the debris with some large hard slab chunks.
Reverse loaded rib on the S side of Cashmere, a recent windslab can be identified.
General debris landscape.
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