Observation: Public

Name:

Forrest

Observation Date:

April 2, 2023

Submitted:

April 2, 2023

Zone or Region:

Snoqualmie Pass

Activity:

Skiing/Snowboarding

Location:

Kendall knob

Did you trigger any avalanches?

Yes

Was it intentional?

No

Avalanche Type:

Soft Slab

Size:

Size 1: Relatively harmless to people

Elevation:

4650

Aspect:

S

Comments:

I Triggered a small avalanche about 40 feet wide and roughly 4-6 inches deep. It occurred immediately after about 15 minutes of sun exposure. It ran about one centimeter above a crust. Slope angle 35-40 degrees.

None reported

Snow was baked by the sun for about 15 minutes and we could feel the snow had changed since skinning up, we discussed the slopes potential to slide before skiing and decided to go for it. Snow felt relatively stable and didn’t show any shooting cracks or collapses (yesterday we experienced some shooting cracks on test slopes). It was a rather delayed trigger, didn’t really start sliding until I had skied below the trees it ran into. Ran about 100 feet and stopped at some large trees. It could have been worse if the snow had run faster or if I had stopped to look back as it would have carried a skier into large tree wells and potentially buried them there.

We noticed on our way out that there were lots of tracks on the Kendall slide path, same aspect, similar slope angle, and about 500 feet higher up but didn’t see any evidence of avalanche activity there.