Our touring party started ascending the south ridge of Bald Mountain at approximately 7:30 AM, and dropped into the north east face at approximately 9:30 AM. We had scoped the line prior to our ascent and noticed some minor wind loading, but nothing that was out of the ordinary for the season and the time of year. There were some roller-balls from yesterdays warming events, but the face looked pretty good so we decided to go for it.

We rode the far skiers right entrance, then traversed over to the main face below the primary cliff bands, and rode the face down to the sled we had stashed at the bottom. We didn't notice any unexpected warming or uncommonly large roller balls. I dropped first, and got to the sled to pull my camera out, and shot photos of the other two members of the party as they made their descents, and as the last person in the party was exiting, rider #2 noticed a large point release at about 10,700, about the size of a Volkswagon, slowly chugging its way down the slope. At approximately 10,500, this point release triggered a much larger wet slab, about a 1000' wide, which ran all the way to the flats, propagating all the newest storm snow as it came down. The third member of the party was less than a minute ahead of the debris, and his dog was only seconds ahead of the debris when it finally came to rest at about 10,500.

"Timing is everything," he said as he skied over to the sled, and we watch the final roller balls come to rest. We were able to sink a 240cm probe all the way without touching bottom once the debris pile settled in.