Avalanche

Snodgrass, California Bowl

Evan Ross & Eric MurrowGunnison
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Observation photo 1Observation photo 2Observation photo 3Observation photo 4Observation photo 5Observation photo 6

Quick report

Cracking
isolated
Collapsing
specific

We targeted east to northeast-facing slopes on Snodgrass to gauge the sensitivity of the persistent slab avalanche problem.  We remotely triggered two large avalanches that would have had severe consequences if you were caught. One avalanche produced a wide swath of avalanche debris a ~150cm deep. 

Collapses sometimes required heavy jumps to produce. One triggered avalanche occurred while skiing, after multiple people tried and received small collapses while jumping on the side of the slope.

Weather

Cloud Cover
obscured

Light winds in this area. Very light snowfall with shorter periods of moderate snowfall.

Snowpack

The 2/17 interface was down about 60cm. The 2/11 interface was down about 70cm. Total HS on wind sheltered northeasterly facing slopes at 10,000ft was around 120cm. 

Avalanche

Size
D2.5 R3
Type
SS
Count
3
Aspect
NE
Trigger
AS
Elevation
10750 ft

Remotely triggered 2 large avalanches on an east and a northeast aspect. The avalanche on a NE aspect propagated widely across the terrain and produced a large, deep debris pile. The Easterly facing avalanche was remotely triggered while skiing a nearby connected slope. Notably, we had jumped on the side of the slope and produced a couple of collapses. After giving up on the remote trigger, we went skiing on a smaller slope in the area, and the 2nd skier got a collapse that triggered this avalanche remotely.