Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
Skinned up the boulderfield on the south side of Mt. Herman around 8AM. Winds and new snow from overnight had filled in all the skintracks from the previous day. Lower down we observed 2” of soft snow cracking and breaking around our skis. Cracking around our skis continued to the top, with some wind drifted pockets cracking a little deeper the higher we got. Snow would only budge when unsupported from a skintrack cut below. Things changed drastically when we headed to Herman Saddle and for a lap down to Iceberg lake. The terrain above Iceberg had been completely changed by the wind as compared to the previous day. Around 1130AM we unintentionally triggered a very deep wind drifted smaller ridgeline slope (see photo) and observed larger shooting cracks. On our ride back down to Bagley lakes winds were transporting and loading snow onto the slightly more sheltered and treed E facing terrain.
Avalanche
Above Iceberg lake, E-SE aspect, 5400’ 11:30AM, skier triggered Wind Slab. Nobody caught. D1, 10m wide, 30-60cm deep, ran ~7’