Quick report
Our group wanted to check out the line called Silverback. The logic being it was somewhat sheltered from wind by trees and was relatively mellow. The surprise of the day was how hot it was, especially in the morning. With some sun breaks, there was likely a mild greenhouse effect going on, and so we skinned up Gutter Glades in our base layers. In traversing east across the ridge from Mustang Bowl to Silverback, we kept a wide distance between us and the cornices to our left (west side of the ridge). We'd seen Maggie's backside slide the day before, and tried to avoid similar features (see avalanche report). Before skiing Silverback, we observed the following snow pack structure in the top couple of feet: 2-3" of warming gloppy snow that slide easily over a mild crust. Below that crust was ~8-12" of dry snow before encountering what I assume was the JDL. In digging a hand pit, this dry snow didn't slide over that lower JDL crust, though it did easily roll off of it. After making some turns to test how it felt under our skies, we chose to commit to the line. In practice, we found our skis easily breaking through the top mild crust. The top 2-3" of snow was not sliding, though it was rolling into many large roller balls (see photo). In the afternoon, the temperature cooled, and we encountered some sleet and light snow.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1
- Aspect
- NW
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 5370 ft
Maggie's Backside had slide due to recent wind loading.