This was our second day in a row skiing Reynolds Glade. We did two runs yesterday (02/18/2026) during the stormy morning and were curious to see the effect of the overnight snowfall. For our second run today (02/19/2026), we decided to ski the north-facing opening 700’ west of the summit. Skier one dropped into the skier’s right side of the open slope and stopped in the aspen glade, ~400’ below the ridge. Skier two skied a line left of skier one and noticed the snow cracking below their first fall line turn. Skier two was surprised to see that the slope was moving slowly and attempted to grab a tree to arrest their movement.
However, with skis beneath the moving snow, skier two was pulled from the tree and carried about 20 feet with one ski buried knee-deep. Both sides of the slope, east and west of skier two, pulled out with crowns as large as two feet. Skier two radioed skier one that the slope had slid. Skier one radioed that they would put on skins and ski up to skier 2. Once skinning, skier one inquired about skier two’s condition and found that they were excavating their buried ski. Skier one encountered avalanche debris within a few minutes of skinning up. Skier one reached skier two after 15 minutes by skinning up the bed slope. There were large blocks of broken wind slab over much of the slope and more fractured snow above the crown.
We measured the bed surface slope angle at 30 degrees about where the slide broke. Both skiers exited the slope via the low-angle but fractured snow above the narrow part of the crown. One ski pole was lost.
What we did right:
1. We skied one-at-a-time.
2. We had radios.
3. We didn't drop into the center of the run.
What we could have done better:
1. Perhaps Skier one should have stopped on the slope sooner behind the large any of the large evergreens and had eyes on skier two.
2. We should have checked map-based slope angle information before skiing our second run. If we had, we would have seen we were at or over 30 degrees in that area.
3. We had heard a big collapse on the skin track after our first run, and given the avalanche conditions, we should have steered clear of slopes approaching 30 degrees.
