Wolf Creek Area

Toured up the Open Canyon/Dryfork divide to 8,500’. We observed moderate winds out of the west once on the ridge at 7,000’. Strong winds from the north and west over the past several days have redistributed loose snow and scoured or loaded most open slopes above 8,000’. There is currently very little loose snow available for transport as the majority has already been moved around. Surface conditions include a mixed bag of wind board, soft textured snow, crusts, and settled powder in sheltered areas.

On the way up, we observed several small pockets of 4” thick wind slab that were reactive to the weight of a skier. A ski cut at 8,500’ produced a larger wind slab. The avalanche was only 4-6” deep, but propagated ~150 ft across a 40° NE facing slope. D1 in size, but enough to knock you off your feet in consequential terrain. The variety of weak interfaces that exist near the surface will be worth tracking during the next substantial loading event given this behavior.

Cracking and reactive wind slabs were observed on steep (>40°) features along exposed ridges.

The upper 20cm of the snowpack is showing signs of faceting. A thin crust with near surface facets sitting above exists in SE facing terrain in the middle elevations. We focused our deeper snowpack assessments around 7,500’. Here, basal facets are buried 100-120cm. We dug two pits, one on a NE aspect and the other on a SE aspect. 

NE @ 7,500’, HS = 120cm, basal facet interface down 102cm. High strength, moderate structure, low propensity for propagation (ECTX).