Observation Date:
December 31, 2021
Submitted:
January 2, 2022
Zone or Region:
Mammoth Lakes
Activity:
Skiing/Snowboarding
Location:
Avalanche activity, Red Cone area, lakes basin
Did you trigger any avalanches?
Yes
Was it intentional?
No
Avalanche Type:
Hard Slab
Size:
Size 2: Could bury, injure, or kill a person
Elevation:
9676
Aspect:
NE
Comments:
my wife and I remotely triggered an avalanche in what we thought was relatively benign below-treeline terrain in the red cone zone (9676' elevation, lat/long 37.60093, -119.02250). it propagated maybe 100 feet thru treed terrain across multiple terrain features with a crown depth ranging from 6" to 2'.
Our amateur analysis is that the super low-density snow that fell 12/27 was sheltered enough in this area to stick around and act as an extremely weak layer for the thick finger-hardness windslab that fractured and propagated like crazy. we didn't go look at the crown or investigate further (sorry!) because we were so spooked by the extreme propagation and focused all our energy in getting out of there safe.
None reported