Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
I went to Elephant's Back not quite knowing what to expect. Due to the recent NE/E winds, I thought there could be ice, breakable crust, or maybe even some blown-in snow. Once in the NE bowl, I found all three. When I entered the bowl, the SE facing aspect held nearly bullet proof snow with a light powder coating; ski penetration was 2 cm at most. But as I skied into the gut of the bowl, the snow became deeper, and as I skied down, I hit crust less often. By the lower half, it was all powder skiing. On ascending for another lap, I observed the same pattern: on SE aspects, higher up, the snow became harder and harder as I ascended. At the Hump, descending through a much more protected area on N and NW aspects, higher up, I found some light breakable crust but lower, it was also all powder snow. I found some surface facets in the Hump area. In Elephant's Back NE bowl, there were some recent avalanches off the cliffs on the ridge but also somewhat covered by the recent blowing snow from the NE and E.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 30s
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Beautiful day with lots of sun. Warm in the sun, but air temperatures were on the brisk side.
Snowpack
There was ice and wind buff in some exposed areas, especially SE facing aspects of the NE bowl's entrance. However, in the gut of the bowl itself, truly NE facing aspects had cold, light, unconsolidated powder snow. On a SE aspect, I did a hand shear test, and a 24cm wind layer failed on isolation.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 9400 ft