Metal Dome Alp/TL/BTL

bengroundwater1 , Wednesday 8th January, 2025 6:15PM

A group of 4 mountian professionals went sled skiing in the Metal Dome area today. We observed a variety of conditions in the Alpine/Treeline and below. In the Alpine, several new size 1-1.5 Natural Solar triggered and skier remote triggered wind slab avalanches were observed. These were mostly 10-20cm's deep and occurred on steep, extreme and convex features that received recent wind loading in the past 24-36 hours. Most areas except for sheltered terrain in the alpine in wind affected, either scoured, pressed or loaded. At tree line and below, wind effect became more specific to exposed features and skiing quality remained good in sheltered terrain; no avalanches were observed or triggered at this elevation and below. Evidence of a previous avalanche cycle to size 2.5-3 still exists in the area from perhaps 48-72 hours ago and the debris is skiing well. snow quality was good down to the lake at 1350m and coverage at that elevation and above is quite good for this time of year. After some discussion between the 4 of us we believe that the day's hazard rating was under rated for the alpine, and a rating of 2,1,1 perhaps even 2,2,1 would be more appropriate given the extent of the recent wind event and distribution and reactivity of windslabs in the alpine and upper treeline.