1-pic TR: Propagation at its finest. 2-15 CO

**powder_prophet** · 02-15-2010, 11:29 PM

Saw the remnants of this slide today. She was a doozy!!!

Looks like a cornice-fall trigger that started a small softslab, which quickly stepped down through all the fresh snow from the last few days and propagated clean and fast all the way across the face.

It felt really fucking good to get up in the alpine today, but we definitely skied the gayest, flatest thing possible!!

**smitchell333** · 02-16-2010, 09:20 AM

Upper Current Creek/Russell?

**inthemtns** · 02-16-2010, 03:41 PM

What do you think the average crown height was? It is a perfect example of the propagation following terrain weaknesses. Look at how it zig-zagged to those rock out croppings on the left.

**powder_prophet** · 02-16-2010, 08:45 PM

Originally Posted by smitchell333

Upper Current Creek/Russell?

Nope. It was in the Northern Sawatch, in the vicinity of Tenessee Pass.

Originally Posted by inthemtns

What do you think the average crown height was?

Hard to tell from across valley, but we were thinking ~2 feet.

**Alpentele** · 02-17-2010, 02:33 PM

Wow...that is huge. I guess things are getting a little better if that was only this storms snow, but it is still really rocky underneath.

**Solesides** · 02-17-2010, 04:53 PM

Interesting picture..thanks for posting. But I gotta say, I'm getting pretty tired of the word gay being used as an across-the-board all purpose descriptor.. In this case I guess conservative terrain choices in the face of non stability = gay? Or the dude in ski/snowboard worried about whether it's "ghay" to nordic ski. Or the term spewed across the intro page in this month's Powder. It's just such a weak choice of language, a bad habit I'd like to see broken. \blog

**powder_prophet** · 02-17-2010, 07:32 PM

Originally Posted by Solesides

Interesting picture..thanks for posting. But I gotta say, I'm getting pretty tired of the word gay being used as an across-the-board all purpose descriptor.. In this case I guess conservative terrain choices in the face of non stability = gay? Or the dude in ski/snowboard worried about whether it's "ghay" to nordic ski. Or the term spewed across the intro page in this month's Powder. It's just such a weak choice of language, a bad habit I'd like to see broken. \blog

Wow, that was the gayest thing I've read in a while.

Just kidding. I hear what your saying, and for the most part I agree. I try not to use it much. In the case of the line we skied, I could say flat, mellow, slow, wide-open, etc. But really, the most accurate description would be GFP: gay flat pow!!

**Micol** · 02-17-2010, 10:23 PM

Originally Posted by powder_prophet

Saw the remnants of this slide today. She was a doozy!!!

Looks like a cornice-fall trigger that started a small softslab, which quickly stepped down through all the fresh snow from the last few days and propagated clean and fast all the way across the face.

It felt really fucking good to get up in the alpine today, but we definitely skied the gayest, flatest thing possible!!

This was skier triggered. I did it with a gaper grab cornice drop. I skied out of it though.