Quick report
Avalanches between 6000-7000' on steep wind-loaded east aspects occurring in new snow that fell overnight on 5/16 A surprising amount of snow fell Thursday night and loaded the eastern aspects of steep slopes above 6000'. No signs of instability along the wind scoured climbing route or the less steep (20-30 degree) east aspect of Montor Ridge, but steep east aspects between 6000-7000' all had signs of very recent slab avalanches and one may have run during the day today.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 28
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- 5000
- Recent Snowfall
- 15
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Overnigh there was new snow and high winds above 5000'.
Snowpack
The mountain is covered with deep snow that has been through many freeze thaw cycles. This layer was frozen hard from 4000' to the summit this morning. Campers at Marble Mtn (2600') reported a lot fo raimn overnight. New snow had accumulated above 5000' overnight. Strong winds scoured the ridges and the snow ended up in wind slabs on east aspects. Above 7500', there were signs of freezing rain (round 1 cm ice "pebbles" on the snow surface. The south side of the Mtn was in the lee today so, despite temps below freezing, by afternoon thesnow had softened from treeline to summit.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2.5 R3
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- NO
- Elevation
- 6500 ft
Four D2 avalanches. The layer of new snow was shallow (generally less that a foot), but these avalanches broke along crowns hundreds of feet long and traveled long distances down the mountain accumulating large amounts of snow. No obvious triggers.