Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking
Picture showing the wind damage on the northeast face of Ben Lomond (9,711')
We decided to exit Cutler Creek, and we were very impressed with the avalanche cycle around January 10th with one of the atmospheric river events during that time frame. The gully walls were impressive, and trees a few hundred feet up the side walls were stripped clean of their branches. Very impressive avalanche.
We marked the toe of the avalanche and figured out it ran 3,211 vertical feet downhill from the ridge to the toe of the avalanche with an Alpha Angle of 17.4°. The distance the avalanche traveled was 8,896 feet /1.68 miles, or 903 three-meter probes. Anyway, it's big; Doug has been in these mountains for a long time and has never seen Ben Lomond run that far. Lots of pics attached.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Lots of wind damage from the recent wind event overnight into this morning. When I left the house around 8 am, the winds on Ogden Peak were blowing 30-40 mph from the northeast. The saving grace for the Ogden zone was that the new snow from the past 48 hours was only 2-3 inches deep; therefore, the drifts were shallow and seemed not that sensitive. Granted, we didn't push our luck and avoided the slopes hammered by the wind (skiing was much better out of the wind). </p> <p> </p> <p>I bet it's possible to trigger a 6-12 inch deep and 100-foot wide wind slab in some areas. However, the wind slabs were easy to avoid if you were watching where you were going and made sure to stay in the powder snow. I think MODERATE danger for triggering wind slab avalanches is appropriate. Out of the wind the avalanche danger is LOW. </p>
Mid-elevations were the ticket. Everything up high was blasted by the northeast winds.