Gorge: Getting Western at the Avalanche Ranch

Dan Kilburn , Wednesday 13th January, 2021 4:15PM

Large widespread Na Avalanche cycle occurred last night/early this morning at the peak of the storm. We observed evidence of two large avalanches in steep north facing terrain at tree line 2m+ crown lines and quite destructive (size 3) potentially stepping down to older weak layers. Numerous smaller storm slab releases were observed at TL and Alpine to size 1.5 and around 20cms deep.

Snow conditions were: Crusty, Deep powder. Weather conditions were: Windy, Warm. We rode: Mellow slopes. We avoided: Alpine slopes, Steep slopes, Convex slopes. Riding quality was ok.

Avalache Conditions: Slab avalanches today or yesterday.

Snowpack

Touchy conditions with storm slab sits on wide spread 5-10mm surface hoar layer and a week crust below that down 20-30cm

Avalanche

Large destructive avalanche cycle TL and Alp up the gorge last night early today Many small size 1 to 1.5 avalanches observed in the new storm snow And Two large size 3 avalanches observed