Quick report
Leaving the trailhead around 10 am there was about 3-4" of new snow at roads end. Increasing to 6 or more inches around 8k. Much of the meadow is a melted partially frozen swamp so I stuck to the road until reaching the summer trailhead sign. A short ways after, below the S face chutes of Black Mountain. I came out of the denser part of the aspen trees to see the remnants of an old large avalanche. The aspens were snapped in half above my head. See photos and video. Hard to gauge how old this avalanche was. It did seem to be from this season, but I don't recall reading any mention of it. The snow passing through this area was undisturbed, indicating it was probably from one of the March storm systems if it was recent. After looking at the damage. At 11 the solar aspects had become a little sticky producing some good glopping. I found a snow bridge and crossed over to Scowden. Ski penetration was around 30cm going up the apron to the Dog Leg Chute. The S facing cliff bands were melting rapidly producing roller ball fans and very small point releases. I turned around in the lower part of the chute when the storm rolled in a little stronger than I expected from the forecast. As expected the snow did not disappoint. Towards the bottom of the apron there was old settled debris that seemed to be from the beginning of the storm. I didn't take a photo in the flat light and headed back to the creek crossing. All surfaces I traveled on were not wind effected and had no signs of cracking or collapsing.
Avalanche
- Size
- D4
- Aspect
- S
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 80000 ft
Large section of the aspen forest broken in half by a large avalanche. I assume the snowline was higher when this occurred as the trees were snapped well above my head.