Public Observation #2023-1152

Comments:

Smallish, non-overhanging NE cornice collapsed under my touring partner, who managed to get his feet down, grab the edge and was hauled back up on top with my help. Break was about 8’ wide leaving a 5’ crown (again this was a vertical cornice, NOT a 5’ deep slab). Slide ran down maybe 300-400 vertical feet without major entrainment. Tough to fully gauge the depth from above but probably a D1.5–seemed unlikely to bury a person fully but maybe partially.

There were much larger cornices nearby that we gave a wide berth to. My partner admittedly lost track somewhat of his proximity to the edge as we were discussing descent paths down the opposite side of the ridge.

We also deliberately triggered minor wind slab avalanches with ski in cross loaded slopes near the bottom of our descent in the northwest drainages below Cone Peak.