Granite burial today?

sad news

From the new avalanche forecast:

Updated Granite Mt Accident Information as of Sunday afternoon: Around 4:45 PM on Saturday afternoon 2 skiers and a dog descending the looker's left (or skier's right) avalanche path on the south side of Granite Mt (visible from I-90) triggered a slab avalanche that stepped down to a deeper slab. Upon review of crown photos (below) and conversations with local avalanche professionals from Snoqualmie Pass it seems most likely that the initial slab failure on this cross loaded path included the Wed/Thu storm snow and the second slab of similar depth included last Sun/Mon storm snow with the bonds between these layers weakened by strong solar input and potential melt water in the upper snowpack during the afternoon. The best estimate right now is that both slabs were at least 1 foot in depth.

The skier caught and eventually killed in the slide left the ridgeline at about 5200 ft in elevation and skied onto a steep (40+ degrees) slope. The avalanche became a large and destructive wet slab funneling down to around 2300', entraining increasingly saturated snow lower in the avalanche path and at times gouging to the ground. Initial size estimates are at least D3/R3. The other person was in a safe zone and not affected. The skier who was caught was buried under 20 feet of debris but was recovered Sunday morning by local search and rescue efforts.  Another party of two lower on Granite was not caught and aided in the preliminary search efforts.

We don't believe the upper snowpack structure that led to this accident is common throughout the west slopes.  However, we are increasingly concerned about wet snow avalanches on Monday, including those in isolated areas that could lead to wet slab avalanches.

The photos in the avalanche forecast aren't clickable, but the source images are larger and more clear.

www.nwac.us/media/uploads/2014/03/23/Granite_Mtn1_3-23-14.JPG
www.nwac.us/media/uploads/2014/03/23/Granite_Mtn2_3-23-14.JPG

Peace, love, and warmth to the bereaved; who might be any of us.

Saturday was a cold, cloudy storm day in the North Cascades so for clarities sake what were weather conditions at Snoqualmie Pass? From telemetry it appears to have been well above freezing and significantly warmer than the prior 48 hours. Was the sun in full affect?

Having skied both Friday and Sunday on what seemed a relatively predictable and stable enough snowpack an incident like this is always distressing. Best wishes to friends and family of the deceased.

Snoqualmie was clear and sunny all day Saturday with high elevation haze in the afternoon.

Those pictures are scary. South slopes where we were at the pass were pretty sloppy by late afternoon but based on the avalanche slide surface and the ski tracks leading up to it, it doesn't look like the snow was as wet as I would have expected.

Saturday was a cold, cloudy storm day in the North Cascades so for clarities sake what were weather conditions at Snoqualmie Pass?  From telemetry it appears to have been well above freezing and significantly warmer than the prior 48 hours.  Was the sun in full affect?

Having skied both Friday and Sunday on what seemed a relatively predictable and stable enough snowpack an incident like this is always distressing.  Best wishes to friends and family of the deceased.

Dberdinka.  I was out on Snoqualmie mountain all day, mainly on the North side, but the sun was in full affect all day until late afternoon with passing clouds.  My buddy and I were actually hoping it would cloud over sooner than later to help reduce the sun impact for our return down the South side of Snoqualmie Mountain.  The sun was strong though and it was fairly warm.

The snow on the North side of the ridge was light will little to no crust.  Just depending no the aspect.  

This one hits close to home as we were just on Granite last weekend and observed, what appeared to be, solid conditions.  I believe the winds were from the North late last week and may have wind loaded that Southern slope.  Topped off with the solar radiation creating a bad combination.  I'm no expert though, just a thought.

Prayers and thoughts go out to the people and families involved in this accident.

It was wall to wall sunshine until late afternoon when a little bit of high clouds passed over.  Otherwise, warm and sunny which as we all know is highly dangerous on the I90 side of Granite in spring. Of course, heartfelt condolences to the families involved, can't imagine the agony.