Quick report
Warm day in rescue and the sun was coming in as we were leaving. We skinned up to the bowl just below the pass and got eyes on a big crown on the E-SE face of Penrose running about 1000 feet across the face. The crown was probably 1000 feet above us but the debris from the slide ran down almost to the second step in the drainage. It had some new snow on it so it was probably a bit older Throughout the day things were getting warmer. There was minimal stuffing from trees but the snow was noticeably softening. We dug a put at about 5000 feet on an E aspect and found a stiff crust with 1.5 feet of lighter snow on top. ECTN 13 with that crust 1.5 feet down being very stout at this lower elevation.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2 R2
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- SE
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 6800 ft
Another photo taken of the crown on 1/17. Assume this failed days prior to that. Suspect it failed on facets above the early February Crust.