Quick report
No signs of instability until we triggered a small unsupported slab at 12,400ft.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
It was a beautiful day, with nice warm temps above the inversion. Calm wind.
Snowpack
Obvious signs of instability were nonexistent. We dug 2 test profiles on two Northeasterly facing slopes that had not avalanched during last week's natural avalanche cycle. One was at 11,200ft, and the other at 12,000ft. Snowpack tests didn't produce results at these locations. The snow profiles are in the media gallery. Another test profile on a southeasterly facing slope at 12,200ft also produced no results.
The snow surface on east and northeast-facing slopes consists of NSF around 1mm in size. Sking through that faceted snow surface is great, and even some of the old wind effect is faceting away.
A 35-degree SE-facing slope at 12,200 feet had a dry 3cm crust over 3cm of moist snow at 2:30 pm.
A steep 40+ degree south-facing slope at 12,400ft had wet snow in the upper snowpack at 3:00pm. Old hard slabs were encountered in the same terrain right near the summit of Richmond.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5
- Type
- SS
- Count
- 27
- Aspect
- W
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 11400 ft
Skier triggered a small slab while making a hard jump turn on an unsported south-facing slope at 12,500ft. We continued to document the expansive natural avalanche events that preceded Thanksgiving. Most notably, adding more large avalanches to southwest-facing slopes and adding another D3 for the east face of Mineral Peak.