The Fingers, Gulf of Slides

Upon touring up GOS Trail I observed a light amount of new snow on the ground, starting at around 2.5cm and increasing in depth as I gained elevation. Skies were obscured and light snow fell throughout the day. I toured into the exit drainage of the fingers and found a sheltered spot to dig. Having dug yesterday in Main Gully I was surprised to find different results just a few minutes down the hill in The Fingers. There was much more faceting at ground level, and I observed 4 distinct ice layers rather than 3. I wonder if this area being more sheltered from the wind, and far enough down to not see frequent avalanche activity has anything to do with this. I performed two compression tests, the first failing on the 8th loading step and the second on the third, both had non planar fracture quality and more or less fell apart when I attempted to remove them. Out of curiosity I performed a deep tap test from below the 1/10 crust at 190cm, and observed sudden collapse on the 23rd loading step on ground level facets. I didn’t experience any other failures on this layer and I imagine it’s bridged too well by the ice crusts above, but still an interesting data point. I experienced no propagation on my ECT, and failure at 95% of the way through my PST. After filling in my pit I toured further up into The Fingers. While skinning up Gully 4 I experienced occasional cracking on kick turns, but for the most part it was unconsolidated powder. Winds were calm with no blowing snow until I fully broke treeline. Above 4,700 feet winds and blowing snow were light. I did a ski cut at the top of the gully with no movement or cracking, and skied pretty excellent conditions from there. Overall conclusions between the pit results and the ski descent of Gully 4 point to new snow showing lots of potential for initiation, but the new slab wasn’t cohesive enough for propagation.

The Fingers, Gulf of Slides

Quick report

Weather

Snowpack