Shames Backco Avy activity Jan 24-25

<p>Observations from Shames backco Jan 24 at Prayer flags/Mary’s run: Our recent storm deposited snow on SW to NE aspects up to 50 cm on lee slopes, generally well bonded to the base with notable exceptions on W and S aspects where the melt freeze crust is most prevalent. We witnessed a skier triggered size 1+ in the area of Mary’s run at 1100m on a steep (+/- 40-45 deg est.) short W facing slope. Skier 1 attempted to knock off a small cornice with no result, then skied it with success. Skier 2 followed with a dog, when approx 10 meters onto the face a 30-40 cm crown broke behind him and propagated across the slope. The skier was able to outrun the slide but the dog was caught, pulled into a tree island and momentarily buried, though was able to get itself out, seemingly unfazed. The bed surface appeared to be the the melt-freeze crust. Jan 25: skied Cats, snow quality excellent, storm snow blown in up to 60cm in W facing trees. Minor sloughing but no notable slab formation. Next we moved up the ridge towards Geronimo bowl, while skinning up adjacent to Emotional Blackmail, and on well supported terrain, we remotely triggered a size 2+ slab from 5m away which generated cracks to within 3m. The slide cleared out the small SW facing bowl (again a steep 40-45 deg heavily wind-loaded slope) and ran fast from 1400m to approx 1200m. Crown was around 40-50 cm on the firm melt-freeze crust; the slide moved with energy running 350-450m in length led by a large powder cloud. Small pockets of windslab were found along the remainder of the ridge, E facing slopes were wind scoured at ridge top but skied well below with no slab or instability found. Finished off the day with waterfall trees, on traversing from the dome, a small S facing convex roll popped right below my track and ran a short distance to a ledge below (+/-15m) but with a surprisingly deep crown of nearly 80cm, also on melt-freeze crust. Pics of Emotional Blackmail- first two, dome traverse to waterfall second two.</p>

Terrain Ridden

Mellow slopes, Open trees.

Terrain Avoided

Steep slopes, Convex slopes.

Snow Conditions

Wind affected, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Cloudy, Sunny.