Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
- Collapsing
- specific
Suprise surprise, low tide conditions persist. Little enough snow below 8000 to leave logs and rocks exposed, which does not inspire skiing. Above 8500 cautious turns are possible, if you keep your tips up and dont mind scrapping some logs. Shallowly buried rocks and logs present a hazard, even in the absence of an avalanche large enough to sweep you off your feet and through them (which is quite possible in some areas). A lack of snow bridges across streams also adds an an element of interest to tours right now. If I would have been high on a ridge or slope I would not have been surprised to remote trigger a slide. Even traveling low, through a relatively shallow snowpack full of intrusions poking out, I wasnt 100% confident that I would not remote trigger a small slide and gave runouts as wide a berth as I could.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- light
- Rain Elevation
- >6500
- Recent Snowfall
- 1
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Snowpack
Isolated collapsing below 8500, largely in open rocky areas. Widespread cracking and collapsing above around 8500. Barely a dusting of new snow 12/9 through 5pm 12/10.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1 R1
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- W
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 9500 ft
Two small avalanches came down off the W face of Norton some time before the night of 12/9. Based on the lack of snow covering the debris, I would estimate they occured toward the tail end of the recent wind event, but I am not sure.