Greys River Road

Rode south out of Alpine from the road closure down to Moose Flats, poked into Murphy Creek and then looped back along Squaw Creek Trail. The trail is still in good shape with plenty of coverage but will be icy in the mornings this week. Watch out for fallen rocks in sections along steep road cuts and banks.

Warm and sunny with a few scattered clouds throughout the day. Mostly calm and did not see any signs of active wind loading up high. At the upper elevation of our ride (8500) in sun-exposed areas, all  10" of recent snow was moist and well settled above a crust from the warm, high pressure a week ago. Dry powder was found surprisingly as low as 7500 on north aspects in sheltered, treed terrain.

Lots of avalanche activity over the last several days on North through East aspects at upper elevations. Good visibility allowed us to see lots of terrain on Virginia, Visser, Man, and further north along Star Peaks, around Murphy Creek, and up to the Steward Peak ridgeline. 

Lots of D1-1.5 storm slabs on steep upper-elevation slopes that went naturally in north through east-facing terrain. A couple of larger avalanches were seen including one likely cornice triggered below cliffs on the steep northeast face Visser. All of these were observed from the road with binoculars. There was also lots of evidence of loose snow sluffing on steep shady aspects as well as wet loose on steep sunny slopes. 

Visible evidence of wind affect at upper elevations from recent northwest winds puts this problem at the top of the list. Continued warming temperatures this week will make those upper elevation slabs more sensitive, especially in areas that have been additionally loaded by the wind.