Rider-triggered avalanche visit

Date of Observation: 03/14/2022
Name: Zach Kinler and Ben Pritchett

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass trailhead to Elk Creek

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Site visit to document the recent rider-triggered avalanche, no new avalanches observed
Weather: Sunny and warm, finally felt like March. Calm winds below tree line and abundant sunshine with temps near to above freezing.
Snowpack: At the site of a recent large rider-triggered avalanche, the crown was 2-3 ft deep, it propagated around 150 ft wide and ran around 400 ft to the creek. A few inches of overnight snow are sitting on a thin melt-freeze crust from Saturday’s warming. It appears the avalanche failed on the 3/5 interface and stepped down to the Mid-February “sandbox” layer. The 3/5 interface is a soft melt-freeze crust with pit tests failing on small facets above the crust. A 50 cm soft slab(Fist to 4 Finger hard) is resting on this interface at this location. Failure occurred on this layer first, before the deeper, mid-February layer buried around 80 cm. While part of this slope likely avalanched early during the late February cycle, the slab/weak layer combo was obviously left mostly intact with the 3/5 interface forming during a dry spell before the last couple of storms.