At 7:00 a.m., three backcountry tourers left the Bear Lake Trailhead to ski the Dragon's Trail couloir. At 8:00 a.m., the group arrived at the base of the slope, transitioned to crampons and ice axes, and started bootpacking up the couloir. The group noted on average 2 to 3 inches of new snow on a firm surface with drifts of a foot. The terrain splits at the top of the line, and the lead bootpacker went into the "hallway" feature to the climbers' left. As they entered this terrain feature, the snow became waist-deep. 3 to 4 steps into the deeper snow, the avalanche was triggered. The avalanche broke 15 to 30 feet above the lead bootpacker and around 30 to 60 feet above the other two climbers. All three were caught and carried in the avalanche around 500 feet.

Area Description

Rocky Mountain National Park

Route Description

Dragon tail couloir.

This was a Wind Slab avalanche that broke in an area of drifted snow. It was described as a Soft Slab avalanche R2 D1.5 that broke at the new/old interface.

Overcast. Lightly snowing