Weather
S-1 to S3 alternating through the day. Conditions were becoming blustery in the late afternoon, with high precipitation rates mixing with gusty winds.
Snowpack
HST was around 40cm in lower Elk Creek, increasing to 65cm in Robinson Basin and 75cm by 3pm. There was a big variation in recent snow totals from lower Kebler and the Kebler Y, compared to the Robinson Basin area and the base of the Ruby Range.
Observed a few 2" deep, tiny storm slabs around 2:30pm during some of the higher precip rates. Otherwise no obvious signs of instiblity were observed within the storm snow in wind sheltered areas. We tried to climb into some more wind-exposed areas in the late afternoon, but the visibility was too poor.
Where the 3/13 interface is problematic, appears to be fairly specific and not widespread. I found 1.5mm facets on top of crusts at a 10,400ft NE facing slope in Elk Creek and an ENE facing slope at 11,200ft below Mt Owen. The first area resulted in a triggered avalanche, and the 2nd produced an ECTP 14 SP below a 75cm soft slab. On the east-facing slopes that I checked in the same areas, the facets were baked into the crust and created a rough texture. We traveled on many east-to-southeast facing test slopes up to 11,000ft without any obvious signs of instability.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- AM
- Elevation
- 10400 ft