Quick report
- Cracking
- widespread
Headed over to Gulf of Slides because we wanted to check out the development of wind loaded snow. Winds through the night built in speed and were sustained through the day and consistently were W and NW. Concerns for the day were the loading of Eastern aspects and all of Gulf of Slides’s Gullies are East or Southeast aspects. Unfortunately, once we got there found visibility to be too low as we were unable to see any of the Gullies above us. Not knowing the above hazards, we felt unable to make a safe travel choice to continue. On our skin up did observe that the new snow is currently upside down, meaning that the surface was harder with a wind skin and then the rest of the new snow underneath was soft. This all was resting on a firmer surface as well. Skinning on steeper sections you could easily feel these layers under skis and often on your steps you would push them down slope a bit. On the Gulf of Slides Ski Trail did find a convex slope that we played with as a test slope and the initial slab released with some cracking and propagation across on that firmer surface below. The hang fire was more stubborn to release, but under additional stress it released as well. This was very small pocket we found, but was a very good indication of the sensitivity of the current slabs that are currently throughout the Presidentials.
Avalanche
This was intentionally triggered knowing that it was a small, unsupported pocket. This was done on the skin up the Gulf of Slides Ski Trail by walking across the convex part of the slope.