Maybe I read more into this when I read this in the report...
We spread out as best we could and started to go back to the rocky ridge.
As the first in our party cut back, the slope broke around him and he nonchalantly said "avalanche". The second in our group was on a sub-ridge and was out of harms way. I was just about to the sub-ridge, but not quite. I saw the slide coming and hustled on my skins, but no dice...
Without being there I assume that If they were tighter in their spacing, it could have been a messier sort problem for them all.
It did look like the slide was not extremely wide, but 100ft is still pretty sizable with a 3ft crown.
I agree w/ Mofro -- the point of spacing (or 'one at a time') is to travel in such a way that at most one skier is caught.
Good point about the spacing but, let's not overlook the weight issue that a group of skiers who are traveling closely together stress the hill too. Spacing distributes the load factor.
Not that it could not happen here, but the continental snowpack surely didn't help matters in this case.
Good point Ron
I have not been following the NWAC reports lately, just basing off my own field research. There was a harder layer down lower in the snowpack that may be starting to deteriorate with the colder weather we have been having for the majority of the last couple weeks. It seems pretty much like a continental pack to me. When I get out tomorrow it will be interesting to see where that layer is at because of all the loads that are on it now. Especially the higher density stuff that came down this week.
