Weather
- Air Temp
- Above freezing
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Skies were clear with temperatures well above freezing — while stepping out of the truck and from checking weather stations, like the one on Horton Peak which reached the 60s F, yikes. While there was no wind during the 10 or so times I got our of the truck on the floor of the Sawtooth Basin, weather stations recorded some light winds throughout the Sawtooth and W. Smoky and Galena Summit and E. Mountain Zones. Due to the warm, wet nature of our snowpack by mid-afternoon, no snow was available for transport (SAFT) even if winds were blowing stronger in the alpine.
Snowpack
While I made no direct snowpack observations due to the nature of glassing, the temperature and sun's impact on the snow was obvious. Wet avalanche activity, as well as cornice fall, were apparent throughout many basins I had vantage back into from the road. Meltwater draining from the snowpack crossed the highway below S and W aspects just N of the pass in large amounts that were splashing up onto my truck as I drove through them. Surfaces had a shine that indicated water saturation of the top portion of the snowpack. Day 5 of the warm up and each of these symptoms of the heatwave continue and add cumulatively on top of each other with just a weak surficial refreeze for multiple nights in a row. If / when these impacts reach a tipping point to potentially cause a widespread, large natural wet cycle is a big question mark — but if we get there, we are getting closer by the day with this weather pattern.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Count
- 5
- Aspect
- SE
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 9400 ft
Wet loose activity was present in almost every visible drainage D1-D1.5 in size in the Sawtooths. D2 WL slides were present in many locations as well, along with 2 smaller D2 wet slab avalanches breaking near the bases of cliffs on open slopes on more solar aspects. View occurrences for more information.