Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Rapid Warming
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Noticed visible drifting at upper elevations while en route up the Maple Bench Road. Rapid warming creating heightened wet avalanche conditions. A few recent natural roller balls in the gully bottom... Small sluffs and roller balls easy to trigger involving the fresh snow.</p>
Here's a video observation........
We could see a couple recent loose wet avalanches up high in Bird Canyon. Natural roller balls were enough evidence of wet snow instability for us to reevaluate our route up the avalanche gully, and the slush skiing didn't look so good, so we decided to turn around.
There's still really good coverage in the Wellsvilles for this time of year. It's pretty cool to approach these vast white alpine slopes traveling through greening meadows, early wildflowers, and budding hardwoods.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Concern about possible natural loose wet avalanches prompted us to turn around a ways up Coldwater Canyon, which is an avalanche path and a steep-sided gully terrain trap... Fresh snow certainly warms up and gets saturated quickly in the Wellsville Rnge this time of year. We noticed a few small natural loose avalanches high in Bird Canyon.</p>
Fresh snow from Tuesday very wet, warm, and sloppy, but fresh white now covering up the dusty old snow surface, and most slopes are nice and smooth.