Quick report
- Cracking
- widespread
Snow levels dropped and precipitation rates increased as we drove over to Tamarack Peak this morning. Snowfall rates averaged 2-3 inches an hour for much of the day. At the Tamarack parking lot, 8 to 10 inches of new snow had already accumulated at 9:30 am. As soon as we started skinning, we noticed cracking in the storm snow around our skis. These cracks were failing 8 to 12 inches below the surface at the base of the storm snow on a density change. On steep sheltered slopes and on wind-loaded slopes we saw signs of unstable storm snow in the form of shooting cracks, cornice failures and avalanches (details below). We did not see any natural avalanches, but blowing snow and intense precipitation rates made for very poor visibility into larger, steeper terrain. We avoided traveling in or below the larger, steeper terrain. When we returned to the truck at 12:15 pm, 5 more inches of snow had accumulated in the parking lot. We also talked to another group who said they had accidentally triggered a small storm slab avalanche. They had been caught and carried a short distance but not buried by the avalanche they triggered.
Short length shooting cracks failing at the base of the storm snow from the past 24 hours. Density change.Weather
- Air Temp
- 27
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 30
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Snowfall rates S5 with moderate speed SW winds.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Aspect
- N
- Trigger
- AC
- Elevation
- 9200 ft
We intentionally triggered two avalanches today: 1. A ski kick on a convex rollover above a test slope resulted in a D1 avalanche about 8 to 10 inches deep and 10 ft wide. Shooting cracks propagated about 30 ft into lower angle terrain away from the avalanche. This avalanche occurred on a somewhat sheltered NE-facing slope. 2. A ski kick several feet away from the edge of a cornice caused a 40ft wide cornice failure. When the cornice pieces hit the slope below they released a 40 wide, 12 inch deep D2 avalanche. This avalanche occurred on a wind-loaded NE-facing slope. Both of these avalanches failed on a layer of lower density storm snow at the base of the new snow.