Quick report
I saw over 100 avalanches that released in the past few days. The vast majority occurred in obviously wind-loaded terrain. Many slides occurred in middle elevation terrain, but those were generally in exposed locations that are typically affected by wind. The fresh slides (from Sunday) were easier to spot, but it appeared that the bulk of the activity occurred on Sunday.
Only roadside observations, no traveling on snow.Weather
- Air Temp
- Teens (Galena Summit) and 20s
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- light
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Clear skies in the Boulders and Pios, some "scud" (thin clouds) in the Smokys from Titus area to the N and W, MC and obscured in the far NW Smokys and Sawtooths. A fair amount of roadside wind loading occurred since 4 PM yesterday (Sunday), and obvious wind effects in most upper elevation terrain and a fair amount of exposed middle elevation terrain. NW winds were still gently sifting snow over ridgelines in the Boulder foothills and on the plow banks near Frostbite Flats.
Snowpack
N/A
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Type
- SS
- Count
- 8
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 8300 ft
I recorded some of the significant, fresh avalanches I saw. This was a small fraction of the avalanche activity that occurred over the past few days. When I looked at photos of obvious avalanches, I saw evidence of dozens of slides in some photos. After viewing the high res photos, I saw between 100-150 D2 or greater avalanches today.