Quick report
Another day of great uphill skiing, with a challenging exit due to breakable crust and thin cover below 7000'. I did get a close look at a large avalanche that released on Jan 18th during or following the last significant snowfall. Photos are attached. The crown was about 300' wide, at 8700' elevation just below a rock band on an east aspect. The slide ran about 1000 vertical feet and was large relative to the path. It appeared to have run in the December facets and taken out all of the January snow. Large blocks in the path and debris pile suggest this was a hard slab avalanche. This was the first day since the big January snows that I did not experience collapsing or cracking. Avalanches observed were all a week or so old.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 20s
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 5 inches
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Very pleasant, mostly clear day with light winds. Some west winds had blown the new snow into small, soft drifts on the ridgelines.
Snowpack
A melt-freeze crust exists on all aspects up to 8400', with runnels visible around the 7000' level (photo below). Interestingly, the crust is supportable to skis between 7000' and 8000', but breakable below. This seems backwards--is it because lower elevations had lower temperatures during the inversions? The unusually warm weather has consolidated the January snow into a hard and dense, 2-foot-thick slab, with 2" (7000') to 5" (8400') of new on top. While I did not dig a pit, I did some probe poling. The January slab is so hard it is tough to even penetrate with the handle end of a ski pole. Of course the December facets are still lurking underneath, but the lack of collapsing and the thick, strong slab suggest that it would be difficult to trigger a slide. Maybe not impossible, though, if you found the wrong thin spot, so I stuck to slopes less than 35 degrees. Snowpack depth was 36" at 7000', and 48" at 8400'.