Saw a slammer avalanche that was triggered from cornice fall on a no name, east facing ridge at the head of the north fork of Stanton Creek. The ridge was obscured by clouds but the trigger was obvious. We were surprised by the scale of the associated slides and crowns. Multiple big debris piles and the slide went full path. It looked like the slide occurred in the last 1-2 days during the big wind event. (avalanche tab)
There was another cornice induced slide on the same elevation and aspect at the head wall of the Crystal creek drainage. This slide looked several days older as the debris pile was covered with wind drifts. (previously reported here.)
There was a rime crust at ridge top at 6500, and a very small band of good, chalky skiing between 6000-5500 on north faces. Once we left the trees, the snow surface was wind hammered at all elevations. All southern exposures had sun crusts, and once below 4500, the skiing was sticky.
Did not dig a pit as we were able to kick a large cornice (size of a huge chest freezer) onto our slope without results. This was north facing at 6400.
Details added by forecaster. Estimated date 2/7 based on description from RP: It seemed within 24-48 hours of when I saw it. More recent than slide in crystal creek. I skied across that debris pile and it must have happened early in wind event because it was covered in wind drifts. The one in Stanton has such sharp crowns I figured it happened later in wind event.
