Quick report
Pretty crazy variations in bc conditions lately! First we got a welcome late season dump of snow which filled everything in nicely (and caused some naturals), then it was super windy for a couple days with winds from atypical directions, then it warmed up FAST and didn’t go through a normal corn cycle… all in all definitely a recipe for avy activity in the mountains. I went out to BT on Fri, the first day that it was really hot and didn’t have a great freeze the previous night. There was some debris from cornice fall below Pucker but it was still relatively clean at the time. I dropped into it from one of the entrances further up the ridge, and I wouldn’t have wanted to be in it any later, the snow was already pretty manky and sticky, so I got down and out of the barrel ASAP. I watched a couple skiers come down as I was transitioning, and at one point they stopped on a less steep spot halfway down lookers right, that happened to be under a large cliff, and suddenly a cornice or something released above sending a waterfall of snow over the cliff, seemingly close to where they were standing, though fortunately they exited quickly and were fine. Lots of hangfire out there. Went over to the SW face and it was much cleaner and better snow, more actual corn over there. Exit run was down the face lookers left of Pucker, the same pic that someone else just posted about seeing a large avy over there yesterday with tracks going in and they weren’t sure if they came out. Those tracks were from earlier that day (prolly the same skiers in Pucker), so I think all is fine. Attached is a pic showing the same slope with the tracks, I suspect the avy was from cornice fall as it looks like the big cornice above it is smaller in the pic the other person posted. Yesterday saw a large wet slab crown near the top of Pucker, and a friend saw a very large wet slab crown at the top of Thayer on N Sister. These warm temps aren’t helping with snow stability, looks like we might see a bit more of the same this week. Hopefully we’ll get back to a typical corn cycle soon...
Avalanche
5/10, BT Pucker, evidence of natural slab post previous storm, also lots of cornice debris/roller balls 5/12, BT Pucker, large wet slab crown 5/12, N Sister Thayer, large wet slab crown All most likely naturals.