Avalanche

Dream Bowl

Sierra Mountain CenterEastside Region
View on map

Quick report

Wind Slab development on leeward zones below ridgetops as well as in more open slopes and bowls due to cross loading. Moderated blowing snow with stronger gusts from the SW. We saw increased wind slab in exposed zones today, with very little cracking around the skis. I detected nothing upside down in the upper part of the snowpack on the aspects we skied and probed, but we did avoid ridgeline entrances to bowls and couloirs where obvious wind loading was occurring. On steeper sheltered zones we set off some dry loose. Even on convexities no storm slab was evident or released.

Weather

Cloud Cover
few
Wind Loading
moderate
Recent Snowfall
20-60cm
Snow Avail For Transport
moderate amounts

Beautiful day today with clear skies above, but some clouds moving in from SW starting around 11am. Temps at 9000ft were around freezing, with light to moderate SW winds increasing to mod with strong gusts at around 10k.

Snowpack

Surface snow was a mixture of PP, DF, and graupel. New snow between 9000-10000ft ranged between 10-24 inches. Probing showed increase snow depths above 9k in non sheltered terrain, but still quite variable depending on the terrain.

Avalanche

Size
D1 R1
Type
HS
Aspect
N
Trigger
N
Elevation
9800 ft

Saw a long but shallow crown on the N aspect of lower Dream Bowl below cliff bands from the recent storm, as well as a crown within the cliffs above. Looks to have been a wide but short release and is already being buried under active wind loading on that slope.