Quick report
Several natural slides, most notably an R2.5D2 that appeared to be storm slab or wind slab that looked to have released on one of the many crusts in the snowpack yesterday or today based on how little it has filled in and how much snow we got last night. The crown looked to be 1-3 feet deep (deeper to the looker's left), perhaps 300' wide and ran about 200' before the slope let up. There were several wet loose slides on west and SW aspects (3rd picture). These were mostly D1 and ran anywhere from a few hundred to a thousand vertical feet. A pit at 8,400' on a W/SW slope showed 20cm of 4 finger followed by a 5cm 1 Finger/pencil crust sitting on another 10 cm pencil hard crust. ECT propagated on the crust interface about 25cm down at 15 taps, resistant planar. The winds seemed to be coming from several directions in the Broken Top Bowl, and there was a smattering of crust, windslab and light fluffy powder depending on where you were. A relatively thin sun crust was beginning to form on south aspects by late afternoon. Wind ripples were present on easterly aspects. Ball Butte had about 20cm of light, unconsolidated powder on top of a crust, it skied delightfully.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 8400 ft