Silverking Ridge

Whitewater snow safety was up Silverking Ridge today for a pre-season observation route. We kept to our assessment mindset given our high degree of uncertainty about conditions and the significant ongoing storm. We moved conservatively through the terrain and found some great early season skiing.

Due to poor visibility we were unable to see the start zone but suspect the avalanches failed in the steep, planar start zone below the Goatslide head wall. We observed 2 size 2 natural avalanches that ran mid-path.

We dug a test profile in Goat Trees in an open, treed slope. The snowpack depth was 81cm with an early November 2cm knife crust down 52cm. The snow above the crust was dry and was moist below. Compression tests had easy resistant planar results down 15cm and moderate sudden planar results down 41cm repeated, both within the storm snow.