Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading, Collapsing, Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Lots of natural avalanches from the Christmas cycle around Cottonwood Canyon.</p>
Touring (12/27) through Blind Hollow up to the Naomi Peak area and out via Tony Grove, I observed numerous avalanches in the Cottonwood Canyon area of the Naomi Peak Wilderness. As Toby notes, almost all of these failed on the early season facets when wind and snow loaded them up during the Christmas cycle. Due to an early start, I missed the 12/26 observations. I toured out to the western ridge from Blind Hollow and saw the shock and awe and snapped some photos. I then took a run back to the yurt. When I toured back to the ridge it was considerably warmer (1200) and I saw what appeared to be another new avalanche that went below the rock band east of Mt. Elmer. When comparing this to Toby's 3rd and 4th pictures, it was in fact new yesterday. My images don't catch it super well, but I have attached them anyway.
Poor quality image, but the best of my lot. 12/27 avalanche is lookers left of the one in the center that Toby documented in his 3rd and 4th photos from Thursday.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Where the bed surface facets remain, there is still potential for large persistent slab avalanches.</p> <p>Rapid warming, especially near exposed rock bands, could cause small wet slides that step down into yet untriggered persistent slabs on NE/N/NW aspects. I hypothesize that this is how the additional 12/27 slide I saw occurred. As weather cools and clouds, this should be less of an issue.</p>
Almost every snow condition imaginable. Some crusts are now supporting, but sheltered areas are breakable crusts under graupel on the rain-rime crust. Managed to collapse untraveled low-angle slopes at most aspects.