Quick report
This was a late day/sunset Copper bopper, before the stability window slammed shut. Loose dry avalanches involving the 15-20cm of new snow quickly entrained the facets below and were easy to trigger. These slides ran quickly and picked up mass as they went, becoming as large as the terrain allowed. I intentionally triggered about a half dozen D1-1.5s, if I had set out to make D2s it would have been a matter of picking the right slopes. There are a lot of stiff surfaces under the new snow that will help avalanches to run fast and far during this storm and resulting natural avalanche cycle. See Instagram story linked below for a video of one of these smaller slides. I stuck to sheltered terrain while descending and did not encounter any recent, sensitive wind slabs, though there were fresh drifts up to 40 cm deep along ridgelines. Conditions will quickly become quite dangerous as a slab develops over the January Drought Layer (burial began today, 1/31 for this layer).
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Recent Snowfall
- 15-20
Snowing S1-2 until around 1830 when things really picked up, snowing S3-4 with steady moderate ridgeline winds for the remainder of the tour and dumping throughout drive. 15-20cm accumulation of new snow by 1900.
Snowpack
15-20cm of new snow at 7pm on 1/31. On shaded slopes, the rain crust from 1/3 was buried down 30-35cm, with a stack of facets +layers of SH in the interval above this crust but below the new snow. Weakest snow was below the 1/3 rain crust and at base of new snow, with a concerning layer of SH in between. On firm surfaces (aging windboard) with new snow on top the skinning was quite slippery. In sheltered terrain, skiing felt ever-so-slightly upside down thanks to the deep facet stacks that developed during the January drought. New snow was very light and fluffy and easy to get in one's face.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 8500 ft
Loose dry avalanches involving the new snow quickly entrained the facets below were easy to trigger. These slides ran quickly and picked up mass as they went, becoming as large as the terrain allowed. I intentionally triggered about a half dozen D1-1.5s, if I had set out to make D2s it would have been a matter of picking the right slopes. There are a lot of stiff surfaces under the new snow that will help avalanches to run fast and far.