Triggered Avalanche 2/5/2022
West side of Colden (Avalanche Pass)
Colden-avalanche pass
Triggered Avalanche
Slab
D1: Relatively harmless to people.
Avalanche Pass, 6 inches deep, 20-30 ft wide, slid only 30 feet
Observation Details
Snow on slopes north/northwest side of Colden is pretty sketchy. We dug a pit right around 3000 feet and planned to dig a few more as we moved up in elevation throughout the day. this proved unnecessary as within climbing the objective only 300-400 feet up the fresher snow went from powder to more packed slabs. Upon doing some more tests, it was very easy to set off a small 20-30 foot wide slide. Nothing crazy here but I imagine if we had continued up there could have been potential for more serious avalanche activity, possibly fatal.
Regarding the initial pit dug at the base, here is what the snow pack is looking like. 115 centimeters total. 6 inches of soft powder on top, a very small but noticeable weak layer from a few warm days we had, then another 6 inches of packed powder. Below that is a rain crust and hard pack snow beneath that which seemed stable at 3000 feet.