Quick report
- Cracking
- widespread
- Collapsing
- widespread
Collapsing was widespread and would radiate >50 feet out from skis. Some cracking and collapsing would extend well into the adjacent slope from the low angle ridge that we traveled on.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Rain Elevation
- Precipitation fell as snow in areas we travelled.
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Skies were partly cloudy throughout our tour, with plenty of sun breaks to feel the solar input. These high clouds mostly cleared throughout the afternoon. As the sun set, valley fog made its way into the basin beneath the Boulder Mountains. While temperatures were on the warmer side when we left the truck in the afternoon around 1400, temperatures quickly grew colder into the afternoon, dipping significantly right before sunset. Wind was light at most near ridgeline.
Snowpack
Traveling up from the truck around 1400, snow surfaces were dry and light on the valley floor, with 12-14cm of fresh new snow laying atop a series of thin, almost hard to detect crusts. HN increased slightly to 15cm as we climbed higher. Near 7900', we found extensive cracking and collapsing, to the point of collapsing near entire slopes to the extent that we could see. While we did not remotely trigger any slides that we were aware of, it would not have been surprising to do so. We observed signs of past wind transport near ridgeline in the forms of drifts and pillows. Coming to a better vantage near 9300', we could see several large persistent slab avalanches that likely ran during our recent avalanche cycle.
On our descent snow surfaces on southeasterly aspects that had been soft during our climb had formed an unsupportable crust in intermittent and somewhat sporadic locations, calling for some attention while skiing. This thin crust became more widespread and predictable upon reaching 8100'. Snow surfaces colder, sheltered portions of this drainage were already beginning to form surface hoar with the incoming valley fog during out exit after sunset.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Count
- 2
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 8400 ft
Multiple large (D2+) persistent slab avalanches, one more recent than the other were visible. See avalanche observations for more details.