Quick report
- Aspect
- Northeast
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2896 m
- Slope Angle
- 29°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Snowfall in the last week contains 7.2 inches of water. This amount of water over an area the size of a football field equates to 2,500,000 pounds. Imagine that amount of stress on the weak layer at the ground. If that weak layer breaks, imagine 2,500,000 pounds of snow crashing down the mountainside. </p>
I was surprised how easily the ECT broke and propagated. It was on my last tap swinging my arm from the elbow (ECTP20), but I thought that I was going to have to give it hard taps swinging my arm from my shoulder becuase the weak layer has such a thick slab on top of it.
However, this thick, supportable slab made it a little harder to have widespread collapsing. We heard several collapses, including a very loud, tree shaking collapse.
Let me make a key point - triggering a collapse IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS TRIGGERING AN AVALANCHE. The only difference is that the slope is not steep enough to slide, so you don't get an avalanche. However, all the other processes in an avalanche occur in a collapse.
Video below shows how deep the new snow is. Unbelievable.
Comment about the danger rating -
There are several ways to think about avalanche danger. View the danger scale below. Notice the columns labled "travel advice", "likelihood of avalanches", and "avalanche size and distribution".
The travel advice for HIGH danger fits our current situation on northerly facing slopes (as well as W, E, and SE) very well - "Very dangerous avalanche conditions. Travel in avalanche terrain NOT recommended."
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>This is the #1 problem. It's scary now and perhaps for the coming week or so. The good news is that it doesn't exist on south facing slopes. The other good news is that the skiing and riding is 5 star on all aspects and all elevations which means we have terrain options to choose from.</p>