Wind Slab Avalanche on Webber Peak

This avalanche was reported on 12/29. We went out and investigated it on 12/30. It failed at a crust at the base of the snow that fell on the night of 12/25. The Dec 11 facets were below the bed surface. It looked like it had a small amount (1cm) of new snow on it and the edges looked a little rounded. Our best estimate is that it released on 12/26 or 12/27. This wind slab failed across almost the entire slope. Debris chunks as large as refrigerators were piled up against trees at the base of the open start zone and debris ran into the trees. There were at least 2 large rocky outcrops that avalanche flowed over. 

We could not determine trigger for this avalanche. There were no tracks going in or out of the avalanche. There were some tracks on the ridge above the avalanche. 

Snowpit data and observations on 12/30 did not show ongoing instability associated with the layer this avalanche failed on (more details and snowpit here).