Heart Lake
Quick report
Comfortably drove to within 0.5 miles of the Heart Lake trailhead (huge thank you to the people who cut the >50 trees across the road). There were about 3" of new snow at the trailhead (4,700') and between 10-15" above the lake (5,700'). The snow surface was crusty on all but north-facing aspects. We toured to near the Heart Lake inlet and observed some mid-sized point-release avalanches from sun on new snow on NE aspects. The avalanches were impressive to watch tumble over cliffs, but did not result in any propagation. Additionally, no crowns were observed in obvious wind-loaded high-elevation avalanche prone areas. We skied two north facing chutes above the meadow as you approach Heart lake in phenomenal deep powder conditions. As an aside, there were a group of 5 snowmobilers going up and down Main Chute above Dalton Lake, and snowmobiling all around Dalton, Pearl, and Heart Lake. These areas are closed to snow machine use.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Count
- 3
- Aspect
- SE
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 5000 ft
Point release due to warming