Adirondack CommunityAvalanche Project

Triggered Avalanche

Dry/Loose (Sluff)

D1: Relatively harmless to people.

A small slide occurred ~20 ft above the base of Cruciflyer slide during the ski down. A crack propagated about 20 ft out from a turn over a small convex roll, and 5 in of noncohesive sluff slid smoothly on a thin crust layer. The snow was wind-affected, as expected due to recent weather conditions. No carrying or burial.

Observation Details

Recent snowfall in the high peaks and wind loading filled in the slide. After pit results with no reactivity in the top 30 cm of snow, and consistently increasing snow density down the snowpack, see observation for snow conditions by J Wiech.

While skiing, shooting cracks were observed and mitigated by the first two skiers near the bottom of the slide. The third skier stayed further to skier's right and triggered a small slide while turning over the convex roll. The sliding snow was noncohesive and light, barely more than simple sluff, and not dense enough to move the skier, who was able to continue skiing across the moving snow.

This sluff indicates wind loading, which should be mitigated across the high peaks. Snowpack is still very thin, around ~85 cm in highly wind-affected areas.