Indian Rock

Skied a line off Indian Rock today and found a wide variety of snow surfaces, but mostly pleasant travel. The weather was quite nice, with sunny skies, temperatures just below freezing, and no winds throughout our tour, which wrapped up just before 1 pm. Our ascent route went through NW, N, and NE aspects, and we mostly found a few inches of soft snow on a stout crust. In some sunnier, lower locations, the entire surface was melt-freeze, and quite firm in the morning. The new snow did slide off the crust while skinning a few times, but was manageable without ski crampons. We did not note any slab development until nearing the top of Indian Rock, where we found some shallow wind deposits, up to 4" thick, that did crack. However, instead of wide propagation, these mostly broke into smaller plates, and acted as light sluff, and were easily managed. In the couloir feature itself, the snow was a variety of wind textured surfaces, but mostly good skiing. We found some wind buff, some shallow wind skin, and some deeper deposits of sluff from higher in the line. Once out onto the sunny apron, the snow surface was entirely frozen, and not at all softened yet at 12:30 pm. We did cross the previously observed large slide off the north slope of Angora (https://www.sierraavalanchecenter.org/observations#/view/observations/2cda157c-a298-4fc0-9188-8d9e51052c58) , and it was a pretty impressive sight. There were trees that were several feet in diameter, broken off 5-10 feet above the snow surface, and a massive debris pile down low. Clearly, a powerful avalanche. Lastly, we did note some surface hoar development on the ascent, although in sunny locations, it was already starting to fall over.

Quick report