Northwest Mountains

Continued strong winds through the week have ravaged many slopes and left the best riding conditions in wind-sheltered areas. Old wind-drifted hard slabs exist on wind-loaded terrain, though these hard slabs have grown old and will be difficult to human trigger. In a few areas, cornices are looming large and creating an unlikely, but high-consequence avalanche problem.  Keep an eye out for these overhead hazards, such as this cornice that recently sloshed the fish around in Green Lake.

Last Night wind gusts peaked in the 70 to 80mph range at 12,000ft and in the 50 to 60mph range at 11,000ft. A weather station in the town of Crested Butte also recorded a wind gust of around 40mph that probably woke you up around midnight. The wind has just ravaged the poor mountains this week. Thankfully those winds have come down a few notches going into Thursday, and we have a nice weather day coming up. 

While many slopes have been wind eroded, there are still some lingering wind-loaded hard slabs out there. The wind has run out of snow to transport and those hard slabs have grown old. It would be difficult to human-trigger one of those hard slabs at this point. However, if you did manage to find the sweet spot, the slab would probably break above you. If you are traveling in extreme terrain, keep that in mind. Partucallry if that hard slab is hanging out on a steep unsupported slope. 

The most recent cornice to fall was off of Mt Axtell in the Green Lake Bowl. That cornice was absolutely massive before it fell. Keep this low probably avalanche problem in mind if you are traveling in one of the few places with large cornices hanging about. It's interesting to note that the Green Lake Cornice didn't produce a slab avalanche breaking wider than where the cornice had fallen. Had that cornice fallen somewhere in the SE Mountain forecast area there would have been a better chance that a large persistent slab avalanche would also have been triggered. 

The avalanche danger will begin to climb on Friday with the arrival of a, well, wet and potentially wild storm. The warm temperatures going into this storm will be interesting to watch and may create some unusual avalanche conditions. Keep an eye on the forecast and we'll see how this storm starts to shake out.