Name: Zach Guy
Title: Schuykill Ridge
Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/14/2014
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: NTL/BTL 11,400 to 9,200 ft.
Avalanches: Several human triggered and one natural loose avalanche that gouged into old snow and ran up to 1,200 vertical feet. Debris piles 3-5′ deep. (L-AS/N-R1-D1/1.5-O). Also skier triggered several soft slabs below ridgelines that failed on the Dec 13th NSF, and ran far, gouging into older snow. Most of these were 30-40 feet wide, but one was almost 200 feet wide, and ran about 1,000 vertical. (SS-ASc-R1-D1/1.5-I)
Weather: Moderate W/NW winds with strong gusts. Periods of moderate snow transport. Mostly cloudy with intermittent flurries (S-1) through the day. Cold temps.
Snowpack: Toured in the Western part of Schuykill Ridge, near Pittsburg. 2″ of storm snow evenly distributed across the terrain, over the Dec 13th near surface facet layer. Not enough for slab formation, except for below ridgelines and a few wind affected features, where winds had drifted the new snow into 3-6″ of a more cohesive slab. Anywhere that a slab had formed, it was very touchy underfoot.
Uploads:
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- Anywhere there was slab formation, we saw cracking or slab release
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- Tender soft slabs below ridgelines.
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- Skier triggered soft slab on the Dec 13 NSF layer
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- Two skier triggered soft slabs that ran almost 1,000 vertical.
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- Skier triggered loose snow avalanches. 12/14/14
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- Skier triggered soft slab on the Dec 13 NSF layer