Carbon Peak

The snowpack on northerly slopes of Carbon Peak collapsed and cracked multiple times throughout the day.  We kept to simpler terrain and avoided the obvious steep avalanche paths.  Previous wind events and previous avalanche activity make the snowpack depth and structure variable.  This makes for tricky decision-making about which slopes are dangerous and which are much less dangerous.  A keen eye and skillful snowpack assessment can help, but the variation in the snowpack leaves a lot of risky guess work if you chose to enter steep terrain.

We experienced several collapses below treeline and one near treeline on northerly slopes. One collapse around 10,000 feet seemed to collapsed basal facets with a depth of around 120 cm. The other collapses appeared to break mid-snowpack on the December drought layer. The collapse near treeline happened directly above a steep avalanche path and shot cracks across its start zone but the slope did not run - we suspect previous winds eroded much of the slab component.

We traveled largely on the north half of the compass and experienced clear signs of instability.  Below treeline, where the snowpack was 90ish to 120ish cm, the snowpack remained talkative with collapses/cracking and seemed sensitive to a person's weight.  Where we walked across deeper drifts, the snowpack quieted down even though pole probing confirmed strong over weak structures.  The shallowest snowpacks, less than 80cm, often felt fully faceted with little to no slab structure present.  The variation in snowpack structure from previous winds and previous avalanche activity makes it difficult to know which slopes are more dangerous vs less dangerous.

Views of southerly-facing slopes in the Anthracite Range suggest that sunny slopes became moist and produced some small loose avalanches and roller balls.