Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
- Collapsing
- specific
Off duty day, touchy conditions in the Eddy Mountains with wet, heavy, deep snow travel. Not for the faint of heart. Observed one natural avalanche and significant whumphing and shooting cracks. These were all the red flags we needed to adjust our travel to low angle terrain for the day.
Observed a natural avalanche on a northeasterly facing aspect above the FS17 road. Wide propagation, some debris on road. Observed major whumphing and cracking on northwesterly slope, cracks shooting hundreds of feet ahead of our skin track. One to two feet of heavy snow sits on top of loose, sugary snow. The snowpack felt very unstable. Whatever slopes did not fail today will be ripe for triggering in the coming days with additional weight of new snow.Weather
- Air Temp
- 35
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- 5,500
- Recent Snowfall
- 30-60 cm
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Misty, warm, trees dripping, but snowing. Light snow transitioned to heavy snow by afternoon. A couple inches accumulation. A very wet day.
Snowpack
At the Mt Eddy weather station, 67 inches of snow on the ground. After a 28-day dry spell, a wet and warm storm has brought 1-2 feet of new snow to the area, and more on the way. In some areas in the Eddy Mtns on northerly aspects below and near treeline, faceted (sugary) snow has formed during the dry spell. This is now buried by the heavy, new snow...a poor snowpack structure. We observed nautral avalanches and significant shooting cracks and whumphing today.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2.5 R3
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- NW
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 6700 ft
Natural avalanche observed on northwesterly facing aspect, steep slope above FS 17 road, Sec 33. Persistent weak layer of facets that formed during 28 day dry spell rest on firm bed surface and 1-2 feet of heavy, wet snow on top.