South Fork of Granite Canyon

Toured west off the Tram into the South Fork of Granite Canyon. We traveled on all aspects and through all elevation bands. In this part of the Tetons, around 10-14 inches of new snow has accumulated since 3/12 above 9,000’. About 6-8 inches of very low density snow fell overnight. For the most part, movement involving the new snow was confined to loose snow sluffing in terrain steeper than about 35 degrees. 

Very little in the way of a slab was present in the majority of terrain that we traveled through. However, wind loading along ridge crests was observed above 9,500’ and we found some shallow soft slabs that were reactive to the weight of the rider in these locations. These soft slabs only involved the top 4-6” of snow and moved slowly. We did trigger one deeper (~14”) wind drifted pocket on a northwest facing slope at 9,600’ on a small, loaded convexity. This small slide involved all of the recent snow and ran on the underlying old snow. The snow was noticeably dense and wind affected in this location.

Winds increased throughout the day and snowfall was consistent with several inches of accumulation by 2pm. New slabs were forming in upper elevation starting zones by the afternoon.

Loose snow sluffing in steep/sheltered terrain. Shallow soft slabs 4-6” deep in wind loaded terrain. Cracking was isolated to the most wind affected areas.