Two CAIC forecasters conducting fieldwork near Vail Pass parked their snowmobiles at the top of Ptarmigan Hill. The pair walked downhill over areas of bare ground and hard windboard to see if they could access a recent avalanche that was triggered on February 2. They moved west across a bare slope onto a low-angle area of very hard, wind-drifted snow. They could see the old avalanche and discussed how to get there to do a crown profile. They decided the fastest way was to walk back uphill to their snowmobiles on the ridge, snowmobile down the ridge, and try to access it from above. As they were ascending, they felt the slope collapse and saw cracks. The forecaster in the front moved uphill to safety. The other forecaster, who was about 6 feet behind, scrambled a few feet to his left to the safety of the bed surface. The pair watched as the avalanche ripped out a big portion of Avalanche Bowl to their right. This was a hard slab avalanche unintentionally triggered by the forecasters while they were walking uphill. They were on a 27-degree slope when they triggered the avalanche. The crown face where they were walking was only about 4 inches deep, but the crown face in the steeper part of the slidepath was up to 8 feet deep. The avalanche was about 700 feet wide and ran about 600 vertical feet (HS-AFu-R3-D2).

Area Description

Avalanche Bowl, Ptarmagin Hill