Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
- Collapsing
- specific
Though conditions have improved since our last storm there seems to be apparent hang fire in most of the common avalanche paths which I assume are somewhat persistent to trigger but large based on recent activity in the area. Leading our group to avoid open avalanche terrain and stick to lower angle slopes or significantly anchored steeper slopes. We had 3 collapses during our tour. 2 of them were around stockade flats by the Lake Emma trail head at 8400’ both on NW aspects. The third collapse was on the finger between the Emma Bowls on a NW to W aspect at 9400’ feet. All the whumpfing we experienced felt and sounded like an ice layer collapse that propagated across 30-50m slopes.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 15-31
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- light
- Rain Elevation
- 7500
- Recent Snowfall
- Unsure
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
It was cold this morning with a probable inversion present. We noticed significantly lower temps in gully’s and valleys. It was blue bird for most of the day with light clouds 1/8 pushing in around 1200. Wind was light up to 10000 where it intensified to moderate (20mph) with strong gusts (35+mph). There was snow for transport but it did not appear to be loading any faces at a not worthy rate. The wind was consistently from the W. Temps remained below freezing down to about 7200’.
Snowpack
The snow pack felt significantly more stable above 9500 feet. We did not find any red flags above that elevation. There were obvious crowns on NW, N, NE, and E aspects in open bowls. We noted there were clear avalanche paths surrounded by crowns which did not release.