Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
I was amazed to see only very limited slab activity on this slope. No ski tracks, either (smart people). Most of the avalanche problems were wet loose. However, the CT results (and High rating) were certainly enough to keep us on safe terrain. Very minor shooting cracks on the skin track. The deep snow meant ski tips were submarining a lot, and the heavy snow came up as soft 10cm surface slabs. And, lots of wet loose activity ramping up. We glassed Hogg Rock on the way home and the east aspect of that was a literal hot mess, with lot of little cornice failures triggering wet loose.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 28
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 150
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Stunner day with very light winds. Our aspect showed little to no evidence of wind loading, despite being leeward. Brutal travel, given the deep extremely heavy snow.
Snowpack
We were out to check out the storm totals. 150 cm (!!) of new snow in the past 5 days. Smooth transition from F to 4F to 1F at the base of the storm snow. This sat on top of 4F loose melt forms (polyclusters). See vid and pic. This loose layer went down at least 15cm (I didn't bother to dig any more. 6 ft was enough. Total snowpack Hs was 380cm. I had two CT failures (CT13 and CT3) at 35cm down. Both Q1 (SP). Also, two CT failures (both CTH) at 65 cm down. Q2 (RP). I removed 1 m of snow and got a DTM at the storm snow / melt forms interface. Boot pen was 80 cm, and would have been more, except that is my inseam. You clicked out of your skis at your own peril.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1
- Type
- WL
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 5500 ft
Wet loose happened while we were digging pits to the south at a similar elevation.