Avalanche: Douglas Island

Location: Douglas PWLs

Date:
Observer:
Kanaan Bausler Professional
Route & General Observations

There were a number of avalanches on Douglas last week that haven’t been posted on here yet. These slides indicate the presence of persistent weak layers throughout the island. Most of these photos aren’t mine.

Avalanche Details
If this is an avalanche observation, click yes below and fill in the form as best as you can. If people were involved, please provide details.
Trigger UnknownAvalanche Type Unknown
Aspect UnknownElevationunknown
Slope AngleunknownCrown Depthunknown
WidthunknownVertical Rununknown
Near Miss / Accident Details
Red Flags
Red flags are simple visual clues that are a sign of potential avalanche danger. Please record any sign of red flags below.
Obvious signs of instability
Recent Avalanches?Yes
Collapsing (Whumphing)?No
Cracking (Shooting cracks)?No
Weather & Snow Characteristics
Please provide details to help us determine the weather and snowpack during the time this observation took place.
Weather

Extreme flip flops back and forth this winter between wet and warm to cold and clear have made some funky layers in the snow.

Snowpack

Quick pit just below the ridge on showboat (~2300', W aspect) on December 23 verified loose faceted weak layers between thick crusts in the snowpack. Most notable weak layer of very loose facets was halfway down, around 50 cm deep in the 110 cm pit to the ground. Got a CT11 Quality 3 compression failure on this layer. Also below the 4cm of fresh snow at the surface there was a brittle crust with facets sandwiched between the meltfreeze layer from December 14.

Photos & Video
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Fish Creek Knob north shoulder on December 15  

Cropley Chute on December 15  

Same Cropley crown, in the sun on December 16  

Snowmachine triggered at Moller on December 17  

Another shot of the same snowmachine triggered slide at Moller on December 17  

Troy bowl chutes, likely occurred naturally on December 14 or 15, this photo from December 23  

Location