Quick report
We found good riding on slopes less than 30 degrees on Northerly aspects in the trees. We ventured down towards the South Fork on a ESE aspect, and found surface crusts and poor to acceptable riding quality. It wasn't breakable at least. The average height of snow on this aspect was 125 cm. Some quick pole pokes of the snowpack indicated weak snow near the ground.
Propagating ECT results.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- light
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Light to Moderate winds mostly out of the south. Temperatures were in the mid-twenties. Broken skies all day. No new precip.
Snowpack
North aspect at 7200' height of snow was 145 cm. We found a density change with some decomposing fragments 55 cm down that produced a propagating result in our ECT (ECTP7). There was a 1 cm melt freeze crust with that was 50 cm from the surface that failed, but did not propagate (ECTN13). The January 4th interface was found 65 cm down, and seemed to be gaining strength. The bottom 50 cm's of the snowpack consisted of a mishmash of facet and crust combos, with 15 cm of moist well developed depth hoar near the ground. You could make a snowball out of the Depth Hoar.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2 R3
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- N
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 8000 ft
Several D2 Avalanches had naturally released in the Catcher's Mitt likely last weekend. They looked to be 1.5-2 feet deep. Another D1.5 Natural avalanche was observed on a southeast aspect just north of the middle fork of Big Sheep Creek.