Text Box: 12-29-06, East Face Naomi Peak
(triggered wind slab avalanche)
-Toby Weed-

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pockety wind slabs that formed the day after Christmas are still active.  A persistent sugary weak layer capping a crust is causing a lingering danger on some slopes.

 

A snowmobiler triggered this small hard slab avalanche on the East Face of Naomi Peak sometime on 12-29-06.  The avalanche under cliffs on a steep east facing slope at ~9500' was around a foot deep and 40' wide.

 

Here the easily escaped avalanche turned out to be harmless, but a similar slide could be dangerous or deadly if if strained you through trees or slammed you into or off of a rock.