Quick report
It was clear we'd just survived yet another atmospheric river. Snow was wet everywhere, as far down as I dug, which was over a meter. Creeks were flowing- and it was hot!
I wanted to get out on this glorious day with good visibility to investigate the aftermath of the atmospheric river. I saw many large and very large avalanches that had run in the last 24-48 hours. It's hard to tell how deep the crowns were, as they were all quite distant. They could have been 2 to 3+ feet deep. Cornice failures had occurred as well. I wasn't too concerned about more avalanches coming down, but I still wasn't willing to travel beneath large, steep slopes. This was definitely a low-likelihood, high-consequence scenario today.
During my uphill travel, the snow was supportable, and my skis only sunk 1-3" deep. Traveling down in the afternoon wasn't nearly as pleasant, with sticky snow everywhere, but at least it remained supportable. I was glad I'd just waxed my skis.
I had a thin base layer top on, and I never needed to add another layer - even for the downhill, as I would get too hot. Despite drinking double the amount of water I normally do for one of these outings, I still felt parched. My biggest concerns for the day, aside from still avoiding travel beneath large, steep slopes, were heat-related injuries and sticky skiing on the downhills.
All avalanches were likely 24-48 hours old, occurring at some point during the atmospheric river. No new natural avalanches were noted during the day.Weather
- Air Temp
- HOT
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- none
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Rain from the last 24-48 hours (most recent of many AR's) appears to have reached up to at least 6500ft, if not higher. Subtle wind transport was evident before the snow became soaked. I didn't carry my thermometer, but for travel both up and down, any layering more than my thin base layer was too much (estimated 60F).
Avalanche
- Size
- D3
- Type
- WS
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 5500 ft
Many large and very large avalanches, with crowns and debris piles everywhere, especially in complex terrain. Avalanches occurred on all aspects, and several D3's ran down to the valley bottom, at about 4000ft. Suspected occurrence was 2 nights prior (3/23) when peak precipitation intensity and increasing temperatures were most notable, although there was probably a large time range covering over 24hours when they failed.