Quick report
Throughout our tour we found variable surface conditions. In many areas recent strong winds have stripped things down to either bare ground or to firm and icy surfaces that were difficult to travel on. In protected alpine bowls and gullies we were able to find some reasonable skiing. We found a snowpack with poor structure with well-developed weak facets below a strong, hard wind slab in our handpits during the day.
At the top of Little Teton we had great eyes on the surrounding terrain and saw evidence of some notable old avalanches and a highly wind-affected zone.
Observed the evidence of large avalanche that occured on peaks in South Fork Eagle River (Leighow Moon at MP 7) in a wind-loaded alpine bowl. Cornice break debris observed in a cross loaded gully. No other red flags observed.Weather
- Air Temp
- 19
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Rain Elevation
- N/A
- Recent Snowfall
- N/A
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Enjoyed some sun in the early afternoon with cool temps and moderate winds at ridgetop. Clouds rolled in around 2pm. Overall calm weather.
Snowpack
Variable surface conditions dominate the area. Exposed tundra, rocks, breakable crust, bullet-proof wind slabs, and firm, icy surfaces are widespread. We dug a few handpits during our tour and found a snowpack with poor structure. The snowpack is mostly made up of well developed facets with an overlying hard wind slab. Handpits resulted in very easy releases of surface wind slabs.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2 R2
- Type
- C
- Aspect
- SW
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 3600 ft
Date of occurrence unknown, but most likely during the major wind event 1/12