Almost Top of The World -Summit Creek Ridge
Quick report
- Cracking
- widespread
- Collapsing
- widespread
Localized cracks during travel. Numerous-Numerous-Numerous, yes many whumpfs at flat, sloped, open, or treed terrain above 7200 feet regardless of aspect. The party was surprised to find 2 mm facets, albeit they were rounded. Earlier visits on 20231202 at the same general location but lower in elevation did not provided evidence of instabilities, nor did we observe a basal faceted layer, suggesting that the preservation of November snow and subsequent faceting might be limited at lower elevations. Festival of Whumpfs and 5-10 mm collapses of snowpack below our skis and surroundings . Once whumpfs were initiated, propagation continued for hundred of meters. Small but full snowpack (50 cm deep) natural releases were observed. Visibility limited observations of releases (naturals or remotely triggered by us) at well known "repeat offenders' avalanche sites.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 32-34
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- 6800
- Recent Snowfall
- Prior 24 hours: 25 cm snow, 5 mm Rain
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Overcast, no winds, temps at the freezing level. Foggy, limited visibility with about 30-50 meter visibility. No snow or rain precipitation during the day.
Snowpack
Top 5 cm of MF due to RS event during last 24 hours. At 25 cm a reactive (CTE) weak layer of PP (0.5-1.0 mm) under new snow. At 50 cm a touchy weak layer of rounded facets (2 mm). Thickness of weak layer varied from 5-10 cm. Depth of the snowpack ranged from 50 to 70 cm.
Avalanche
D1 size avalanches at N, NE aspect. Foggy weather limited avalanche releases observations ... we could only see what was right in front of us.