Quick report
Had no immediate cracking and collapsing in areas traveled — unusually quiet for this season, and for my inference going into this area. If I hadn't seen many large natural avalanches and dug into the snow, I could have convinced myself of stability.
Weather
- Air Temp
- <32
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- All precipitation fell as snow in area traveled
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Clear skies and below freezing temperatures made for a lovely afternoon. Leaving the truck around noon, winds were calm at valley bottom. As soon as I climbed just 300' off of valley bottom near the head of the drainage, I immediately experienced moderate NW winds that were sustained until I returned to the valley floor. Snow plumes were visible at ridgelines and across alpine faces, and winds could be felt even in treed terrain. This wind gusted strong intermittently.
Snowpack
I saw many large to very avalanches throughout the course of this tour which paint the snowpack well — see avalanche observation section for more information.
Leaving the truck near 1200, there was 40-45cm of fresh snow on valley bottoms above 6600' from our most recent series of storms. Getting towards the bend at the head of the drainage near 7100', E-N-W aspects all had rippled surfaces, cornices, and signs of past and recent heavy wind transport (see photos). Between 7900'-9300' I found 50-60cm of fresh snow, with surfaces primarily soft in gentler terrain and surface grains primarily as DFs. Above 9300, wind had made both 3-4' thick soft wind deposits of soft snow on the S side of the ridge, as well as 5-15cm hard-packed wind slabs. On these upper elevation solars, I was able to find the stout 2/1 crust below these deposits that was more than supportable to skis — making skinning a bit more exciting. On the nose of the ridge towards the N side, I found a mix of wind-scoured snow, sastrugi, and windboard with 1-2cm of light wind buff on top. Climbing to Peak 10,331, winds continued to blow snow at moderate speeds around me, with avalanches near and far becoming visible.
On the descent, my skin track had been entirely blown in between 9800'-8700', even in more sheltered terrain. In the more sheltered areas, the other surfaces were still soft, suggesting that this happened slowly throughout the course of the day with wind blowing in gradual small amounts of the easily moved light, dry new snowfall. I observed a sun crust on valley bottoms below 7050' on my exit.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Count
- 7
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 10200 ft
Saw many large to very large (D2-D3) avalanches in Eagle Creek and adjacent drainages. Two ran to valley bottom and hit the road. Some ran in the last 72hrs, while others were likely a week or more old. All notably-sized slides were persistent slab avalanches that likely failed on the 1/6 interface.