Temperatures over the past couple nights have been cold enough to allow the upper portion of the snowpack to freeze. When the snowpack stays frozen throughout the day, as opposed to melting, it temporarily decreases the chance of avalanches. So right now, with the snowpack locked up, I’d be most concerned about the new snow from last night. New wind slabs have likely formed on leeward slopes.
Wet loose avalanches are unlikely today but worth mentioning. The weather forecast is calling for overcast skies and cooler temperatures so I don't anticipate any wet avalanche problems, but if the sun does peek out or temperatures warm up enough, the snow could soften and be susceptable to shedding off steep slopes.
Roller Balls
A couple quick moving storms dropped a few inches of snow at high elevations yesterday. The winds were moderate and steady enough to transport snow on to leeward slopes and create new wind slabs. These wind slabs will be found on East through North facing slopes just below ridgelines. Even though the wind slabs will be on the smaller side, these been enough snow transport to be heads up about it. You can easily identify any wind slabs as snow thicker than a few inches above our widespread melt/freeze crust.
On Wednesday, Ryan and I took the sleds up Twenty Mile Road out of Naples with a mission to get up to Clifty Mountain. We found dry roads up to about 3900 ft, where we had to ditch the truck and switch to sleds. The coverage from there to the top was good. I was a little surprised at how frozen and supportable the snow was. The higher we went, the more supportable the snow became. The frozen, supportable crust was about 4 inches thick at the saddle between Clifty and Black Mountain. We left the sleds at the saddle and headed to the top of Clifty on skis. Even though the skiing was firm on the supportable crust, it wasn’t too bad. Sometimes those corral reef like conditions can be challenging on skis; it was manageable and kind of fun! The visibility was poor above 5000 ft, so we didn’t get too creative on our descent, mostly sticking to our up track to return to the sleds.
This time of year, the snowpack can change quickly, especially when it’s warm and sunny out. Today looks like it will stay pretty cool and cloudy, so I anticipate the snowpack will remain frozen and maintain a LOW avalanche danger. But, be sure to stay aware of changing conditions!
Expect to find fresh wind slabs above 5000 ft on leeward slopes near ridges. Yesterday, in the Selkirks, Tom Eddy from Schweitzer was able to ski cut the new load and even though it was just a couple inches, it showed signs of easy failure and propagation. I wouldn’t anticipate big loading anywhere, but the winds were constant enough that I’d anticipate enough load to be aware of it and stay off of it or under it.
Lower elevations are melting off quickly. Access to snow is going to be a challenge soon. Be mindful of terrain traps at lower elevations. As the snow sheds at lower elevations, you want to make sure you’re not below an area of concern, such as: 1. Below a cornice 2. Below a steep south-facing slope 3. Below a band of rocks.
Have a great day out there and enjoy the snow before it’s gone!
