Persistent Slabs
- Alpine
- Treeline
- Below treeline
- Likelihood
- Very Likely
- Size
- 3
Ace observer and local snowpro Trevor Katz reported this meaty piece of snow in mid Weber Canyon, most likely avalanching naturally early Wednesday morning. Breaking deep and wide, this is exactly the type of avalanche dragon we're dealing with again today.
From tip to tail, polar aspects at all elevations, harbor our most recent problem child, the well preserved and aptly named January Drought Layer (JDL). This faceted snow is extremely weak, and teeters on the edge with last weeks colossal storm... 2'-3' of snow and up to 3" of SWE, and now an additional shot of snow, water, and wind stretches the rubber band once again. Flip aspect and you'll find solars present predictable, old heat crusts.
A sub-committee Tuesday night with avy-savvy, snow pro and partner in crime (though we are not criminals :) Andy Nassetta and I parsed out three distinct categories of elevation and aspect-centric snowpack structure. Here's where it gets tricky... packaging the problems was easy, but neatly wrapping up the avalanche dragons with a bow and making them all tidy is a challenge.
First- alpine terrain that avalanched early in last weeks storm cycle was quick to come back to life and will react to our additional weight, especially with Tuesday's added snow, water, and wind.
Next- mid and upper elevation, wind sheltered, polar terrain harbors very weak surface snow that faceted during the big January drought and now it's got a dense, strong layer of snow resting on top. These slopes might not be quite as reactive as yesterday, but the avalanche we trigger is gonna break deep and wide and it's gonna be dangerous.
And finally- low elevation, north facing snow is moist and the January NSF is a little irritated with the spritz of recent rain.
Bringing it full circle, when I think of bullseye terrain where I could trigger a dangerous slide I'm thinking low on the slope where several football fields worth of snow hangs above me... all I need to do is knock the legs out from underneath. Places like Heber Mountain, Wolf Creek Bowl, Yamaha Hill, or Humpy Creek come to mind. I'm also thinking about cut-banks, gullies, and small terrain features that we usually don't consider twice about playing on, but our current set-up is deceiving and this terrain fits the mold.
