Avalanche: Turnagain

After several incident-free runs on the most commonly skied south side of Pete's North, we exited through the NW slope, trending slightly skiers right away from the trees on the shoulder. In part due to deteriorating visibility, I unintentionally skied off a small cliff, ejecting from one ski on landing and triggering a shallow storm/wind slab that had built over the course of the day in the slight convexity at the base of the cliff. In this particular area, the buried rain crust has stayed stout rather than decomposing, causing a relatively long run that petered out before the mellow clearing at the bottom. I slid about 5-10 feet, due more to the slope angle than the actual moving snow, and stopped quickly without needing to trigger my airbag. No injury or lost equipment.

The new snow combined with a light easterly wind is behaving about as expected. We discussed what the avalanche danger in the area might be both before and along the route, and felt comfortable with our decision-making throughout.