Observation: Douglas Island

I descended Pittman’s Ridge after the last skier’s post, and wish I’d read his observation first. After noticing heavy sluffing at the start of my descent, I observed the described avalanche from prior post and recognized that I would probably trigger a similar slide if I followed my planned route. Instead, I took the recent avalanche path/bed surface down to minimize my release. The snow I did trigger added to the debris pile described previously and pictured below.

I would describe avalanche conditions at upper elevations as high to extreme risk, and would have avoided a steep, long slope. New snow is very heavy, and seems to be sitting on top of a hard icy layer from old snow, with absolutely no bondage holding it to the mountain.