Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading, Collapsing, Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Traveling in steep northerly terrain seems risky at this time.</p>
Snowpack
Ski tour to lower South slopes of Horse Mountain via Miner's Basin- 10,400 ft max elevation. Shallow, weak snow-pack but fairly good skiing. Frequent whumpfing while climbing 20-25 degree So. slopes. Sun was warming snow to the point of surface melting.......sticking to skiis and poles. Observed crowns and debris of two separate isolated slab avalanches on North facing terrain - most likely occurred during most recent wind event. Both slides were in wind loaded areas down off the ridge and broke where slope begins to roll to a steeper angle - approx 35-40 degree slope angle and 10,800-11,000 ft elevation. Best guess regarding size of first avalanche is 500ft wide by 200 feet long and 1-2 feet deep at crown. Second one, farther up the basin was easily twice the size in width - difficult to tell how far it ran.