Quick report
Afternoon tour up to Avalanche Lake to look for... you guessed it, avalanches! The trail condition was disappointing, but not the views at the end. Was curious to see if the afternoon sunshine would begin to activate any wet slabs on north facing slopes. Took a late lunch by the lake from about 130pm-200pm without witnessing any significant avalanche activity avalanche activity. A few of areas of falling ice triggered small (D1) wet loose action at times, but that was the extent of it. Numerous recent wet loose and rollerballs observed along the avalanche basin headwall and a few from some of the higher terrain visible in the Mary Baker Lake & Floral Park Basin.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
Overcast in the morning kept all aspects cool until about 11am, when the cloud cover gave way to another warm sunny day.
Snowpack
Very thin and patchy in the Avalanche Campground. The trail is very icy and patchy up to the lake. About 18" snowpack in open areas near the lake. Lake is only about 2/3 covered in ice at this time.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Type
- WL
- Count
- 4
- Aspect
- N
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 6600 ft
Plenty of recent slides to look at in the aptly named Avalanche Basin. No recent slabs, but clearly north facing is starting to feel the heat. Evidence in the runnout below the Little Matterhorn of a very large avalanche earlier this season. Possible hard slab crown visible lookers left of the Little Matterhorn near the base of the cliffs, but too faint/flat lighting to be definitive.