Observation: Wolf Creek Pass

Today we accessed the Wolf Creek area from the Soapstone trailhead. Temps felt warm at the trailhead and winds where moderate to strong. We ventured onto some fresh on a north aspects around 8700ft and noted widespread cracking and collapsing in a snowpack that was about 70cm deep. This carcking and collapsing was noted thought the day on the north half of the compass.

As we moved into the higher elevations snow depths increased and there was good snow to be found on sheltered slopes, but coverage is still a bit thin. In the more open areas the winds had really done some work, with many exposed areas being very scoured with deep soft and hard wind drifts scattered about.

On a road cut we triggered a small slide about 50 feet wide breaking down into the old weak faceted snow. We also noted recent avalanches in the area, one looked to be a snowmobile trigger, breaking mid slope about 150ft wide. Just down the ridge line we saw what appeared to be a recent natural avalanche breaking over 200 feet wide, 1-2ft deep and running around 300ft.

Digging, we found that the bottom half of the snowpack is weak as expected with a denser slab forming on top, the poor structure is apparent, all that is needed is a trigger.

Despite the rather serious avalanche conditions, riding quality in sheltered low angle terrain was very good!