Quick report
- Aspect
- Northwest
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2713 m
- Slope Angle
- 28°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>We observed another glide avalanche in Bonkers that covered up the debris from a slide previously reported by Mark White. Seems strange for this time of year but fresh rock slabs were clearly exposed. </p>
I've been observing the Wasatch snowpack history from afar and this was my first day out in the field up here. It's my impression that the PWL presents the greatest danger on steep northerly aspects where the snowpack is right around 100 cms or less. Terrain also seems to play a significant roll. In addition to steepness, a certain amount of "scrappyness" or complexity seems to be a contributing factor as well. Steep, rocky slopes with convex features, or even sparse trees seem the most likely areas to trigger an avalanche. Broad, planar slopes, especially those with a deeper snowpack seem less likely. It is, however, a bit like rolling the dice. For our part, we continued to avoid slopes much more than 30 degrees.
Fresh glide avalanche in Bonkers.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>We dug a pit on a sheltered NNW, aspect at 8900' and found a deeper than average (145 cm) snowpack for this elevation. Basal facets remain at the base of the snowpack with a strong, 1f slab above. An extended column test produced no results (ECTX) but there was more than a meter of snow above the weak layer thereby reducing the efficacy of the test. By removing about half of the overriding snow, I was able to produce results of ECTP 11 failing on the the basal facets. Anecdotally, this leads me to believe that avalanches are more likely to be triggered in shallower snowpack areas that have 100 cms or less. This coincides with the recent spate of human triggered avalanche activity. Where the snowpack is upwards of a 140 cms or more, it will be harder to affect the weak layer. </p>
Snow surface was soft through the areas we traveled including westerly aspects. It was also faceting in the top few inches. Light wind affect was observed around 9000'.