Quick report
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>No red flags observed today. </p>
I was not anticipating seeing much in the way of avalanches today, but stumbled on this slide in Mill Creek on a steep north facing slope above 10,000'. It really stacked up the debris once it hit the bottom of the slope where it ends in a small drainage. I don't think it is too old as the crown and edges still look clean and sharp, but I did not get close enough to say for sure. This area does typically have shallow weaker snow than areas around the highway and would like to know how this slide was triggered.
The coverage in the Mill Creek Drainage looks pretty decent and riders have been getting around with no problem. I dug a quick snow pit and found about 165cm ( over 60" ) of snow which is quite good for this area.
Looking into Cataract Basin where huge cornices have grown over the winter.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Before heading out today I was thinking how long the persistent weak layer will still be the main avalanche problem and then I came across what might be a fairly recent avalanche in the Mill Creek Drainage. I am really unsure what triggered this slide on a steep north facing slope. Possibly an animal moving through the forest, but I did not see any tracks. </p>
Maybe a generous inch of new snow from yesterday afternoon that did not change the landscape. The riding conditions are still nice and supportable with good dense settle soft snow in wind sheltered areas with weak surface snow fairly widespread where the sun and wind have not destroyed it.