Quick report
- Cracking
- widespread
- Collapsing
- widespread
We observed sensitive and dangerous conditions at upper elevations today. Recent snow and strong winds built a reactive slab above our weak old snowpack.
We remotely triggered a large avalanche on a wind loaded upper elevation northeast aspect. We observed widespread booming collapses/whumpfs while skinning up the east and southeast facing slopes above the warming hut.Weather
- Air Temp
- 13
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- 30
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
It was a pleasant day with cool temperatures, light west winds, and partly cloudy skies with off-and-on light snow showers.
Snowpack
At the warming hut, there was around 12 inches of new snow that was mostly graupel. We dug a snowpit on a wind loaded east aspect at 6300 ft. We found a 45 cm (18") thick slab resting on several buried weak layers, including surface hoar, facets, and depth hoar. An extended column test produced a hard propagating result, failing on buried facets.
At middle and lower elevations, coverage is still quite thin.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2 R3
- Type
- HS
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 6500 ft
We remotely triggered a large avalanche on a wind-loaded upper elevation northeast aspect. We remotely triggered it from over 100 feet away while skinning up the far end of the roll. It propagated widely and wrapped around the terrain feature. It failed on a weak layer of facets. The crown was up to 4.5 feet deep.