Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 76 m
- Weak Layer
- Facets
- Trigger Type
- Natural
- Avalanche Type
- Hard Slab
- Start Zone Aspect
- Northwest
- Avalanche Problem
- Persistent Weak Layer
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2743 m
Interesting day in Dry Canyon. Before finding this natural slide, we dug a pit at 8700 ft on a NW facing slope in between the Oscar Mayer and Goalpost slide paths. This is the first pit I have dug in years, so take all this way a big grain of salt, but I was curious to see how the facets were healing. Snowpack was over 2 m deep, with no obvious weak snow. ECTN11, just under the newest snow. Ground layer facets were rounded and cohesive. We did see subtle crust about 70 cm down with perhaps a narrow band of small facets just below that. When we hammered on the column, that's where it failed. So overall a fairly reassuring pit. Then we skinned just a few hundred feet up and south and saw that Oscar Mayer had slid full path sometime in the last week. Jan. 1 is a wild guess. Looked like it went to the ground in the starting zone, probably many feet deep. How to square the solid snow in the pit with the impressive slide? Speculation: the slide was caused by massive wind loading during one of our recent warm, windy storms. It's possible that the starting zone may have been somewhat scoured and shallower than where we dug, which could have preserved some facets? My take home: where the snow is deep the facets are healing and the pack is strengthening, but you could still find weak snow in shallower spots, and how do you know where those are? Might be a good time to skin with probe in hand.