Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
- Collapsing
- specific
I left the Snopark at about 930am and returned at about 230pm. There was about 12" of new dry snow. The skies were mostly clear and the sun was out until 12ish. Partly sunny with a snow flurry in the afternoon. I stomped a cornice off with three good stomps along the ridgeline of Talking Mountain. My first impression was the new snow had not bonded well. No signs of natural slides in the morning. I observed snow cracking on slopes above 40 degrees on my downhill travel. No signs of instability while traveling uphill from Echo lake to Becker Peak. My travel uphill travel was cautious, however, my overall downhill travel was on the aggressive side. My overall impression from today is that it will be a few days before the snow is stable again. Traveling on slopes above 30 degrees should be done cautiously tomorrow with new snow coming in tonight.
Avalanche
#1 - North Aspect - 8200ft - Human had triggered a small crown slide (30ft wide) coming down the north trees into the bowl. I triggered a second slide as I cut the slope above before heading down (20 wide). The crown was about one foot. (R1/D2) No one was caught in the slide. Snow felt stable the rest of the way down. See photo 1. #2 - North Aspect - 8400ft - Natural slide in the north bowl of Talking Mountain (R2/D2). A large crown appeared to cut midway up the slope below the trees. Hard to tell from afar. See Photo 2 #3 - North Aspect - 8900ft - Becker Peak - Human Trigger - (R1/D2) - 1-foot crown about 30ft wide and slide about 100ft down. The first ski cut I made triggered the slide. I made a second cut and triggered a second slide smaller slide. The snow under felt stable. I skied off to the east into the bowl. The snow felt stable the rest of the way down. Photo 3