Bishop Creek

I drove up to Aspendell with the intention of getting eyes on a reported skier-triggered avalanche from 2/23. On the way up, I was alerted about a large avalanche above the South Fork road so I detoured to check it out. As I drove around the corner past the Four Jeffereys campground, I saw two avalanches - one large (D2), and one closer to very large (D2.5).

I first looked for parked cars or ski tracks, and found neither. I was joined by some county employees, and we chatted about the slides and conditions for a while.

Timing and triggers are not exactly known, but they both seemed to be naturally triggered, and to have occurred some time around 9am this morning. I scoped the crowns and track for a while. Based on depth, character, bed surface, and known structure, I concluded that both slides were wet slabs that failed on persistent grains caused by rapid warming of cold snow.

Both slides gouged tracks to the ground, and took almost all of the seasonal snowpack and piled it up in a mess of wet debris near the bottom of the path.

We did not linger for too long, as there were still several similar paths that had not run.

On the way out, I went up to Aspendell and got eyes on several smaller crowns in Jawbone Canyon, one of which was likely the scene of a skier involvement yesterday, but I can not confirm.

Bishop Creek is certainly a place of concern at the moment. I observed five recent persistent slab avalanches today, all of which were on N, NE, or E slopes between 8000 and 10000 feet.

Two large to very large natural avalanches within hours of my observation.