Quick report
- Cracking
- Observed
- Collapsing
- Observed
I observed the aftermath of a widespread cycle of large natural avalanches that appeared to center around Saturday, December 6th. Natural avalanche activity continued through today thanks to ongoing snowfall and wind loading. In addition to this impressive array of avalanche activity, I also triggered three large avalanches today. All of the large avalanches I have seen and triggered have failed on weak, faceted snow sitting on top of the mid-November drought/rain crust. The width of the slides observed, the widespread nature of natural avalanche activity, the sensitivity of the snowpack to small loads, and its ability to be remotely triggered are quite a concerning combination. I've been in avalanche terrain and runout avoidance mode since Saturday. Tons of collapsing, extending down into sheltered middle elevation terrain. I had no interest in being on anything capable of producing an avalanche.
Weather
Clouds rapidly thickening, winds strengthening, and snowfall starting by 4.
Snowpack
A stout, mid-November drought/rain crust underlies a mix of facets and crusts, depending on elevation. A slab of snow is building on top of this weak layer.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Count
- 17
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- AC
- Elevation
- 9700 ft
There was an impressive, widespread natural avalanche cycle in this area this weekend. Based on appearance of debris and crowns, the majority of this activity centered around the Saturday timeframe, with some notable, significant outliers. Most slides I've seen have been on NE/E aspects, but also saw large slides with wide crowns on SE aspects. Based on what I saw today, and the large natural avalanches I saw on Titus on 12/6 there is probably a lot of other activity in this general area that will go unobserved, buried by the upcoming AR. I saw lots of other, smaller, "pockety" activity that I did not spend the time to code. The human triggered avalanches reported here are also important! Overall impression is that we have quite an ugly snowpack.