Quick report
- Aspect
- Northwest
- Red Flags
- Rapid Warming
- Elevation
- 3078 m
- Slope Angle
- 30°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>we did not experience any collapsing, as you would imagine, and with the extensive slope testing done by snowmobiles in more suspect areas, we felt good about our terrain choices today, and were able to push slope angles into high 30's on breakovers</p> <p>sunny slopes had a supportable crust and got very damp later in the day, we only checked on them as we exited around 2 PM</p>
repeater on steep NE slope as you approach upper basin of Seely Canyon,
upper basin well tested,
old crown in area we skied today
short video on what we were seeing
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Despite our experience in sheltered north facing shady areas, the high sun angle really heated snow up, only saw evidence of roller balls on steep east facing area, and that activity had occurred yesterday, did not wait around </p> <p>Still avoiding NE through E steep rocky shallow areas just off summit ridge, and likely will for the remainder of the year</p>
fast moving storm left skiff of snow with grapel sprinkles mixed in. old tracks were filled but you could still see them underneath. New snow did hide our tracks in the big meadow, but you would still feel them if you skied over them.
With last weeks Ephraim Canyon slide continuing to show the possibility of high consequence deep slab instabilities, we were fairly surprised how much high marking in upper basin had failed to produce any activity, and the area has been tested well with snowmobile tracks climbing to the top of NE starting zones, sidehilling across areas with rocks showing, yet some regular paths still have not let loose.
we approached the N facing timber slopes cautiously, but after digging down 7+' and finding pack right side up and densities starting at 4 finger to pencil hard, our confidence level went up. The tool of the day was a probe which we used in multiple sites on our uptrack, confined uptrack to subridges in the trees, and as we ascended, our confidence increased. The sheltered area we were in has a thick, strong pack, we were penetrating only 6" of recystralized snow with graupel sprinkles on the surface.