Eldorado

A light dusting of snow and the promise of pink light above a sea of clouds was enough to inspire a trip to Eldorado Bowl today. We bushwacked a path across the creek and ascended the steep, suragry slopes directly above the IM lot. We made our way to the ridge above, having to transition to bootpacking to ascend the final slopes. 

We observed several recent small natural avalanches triggered by this most recent round of wind on several aspects in Eldorado Bowl. Once on the ridge, gorgeous late December light illuminated a sea of clouds below. 

On the descent, we encountered breakable crusts and reactive wind slabs that failed on old faceted snow. See attached avalanche observation. These slabs were small but still capable of knocking you off your feet and dragging you through rocky terrain. The size and depth of the well-developed faceted snow below these slabs was impressive. The place is literally a sandbox. 

Getting out the rest of Eldo was a mixed bag of firm snow, punchy, breakable crusts, and loose facets. The most consistent skiing was found on the frozen heather and crowberry. 

Triggered two small (D1) avalanches on the descent through Eldorado Bowl. Both averaged about a foot deep, maybe 20-30' wide, and ran only 150' or so. Both avalanches were lingering wind slabs from the 28th-29th that formed on a layer of deep, large-grained sugary depth hoar.

Thin, old, weak, rotten, demoralizing. There are many adjectives to describe the current snowpack at Hatcher Pass. December came and went, and Hatcher Pass received 7'' of snow and 10 days of intense winds. Current snowpack measured at the IM Sotel is a meager 14'' deep. Higher on the slope, thin ribbons of windblown snow snake through patches of rocks, scrub, and scoured grass. Areas of snow cover are a mix of sugary facets, breakable crusts, dense windslabs, and firm icy bed surfaces.

Recent winds deposited a fresh round of slabs 2-18'' deep on isolated terrain features around the compass at upper elevations. These slabs were formed on a variety of surfaces, including large-grained sugary depth hoar. Today, we found them to be still reactive to skis mid-slope and were able to easily trigger two small wind-loaded pockets.