Date of Observation: 03/04/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Jack Caprio
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mount Emmons Happy Chutes area. Traveled on E and NE aspects to 10,000 ft.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a handful of moist loose avalanches on NE aspects below treeline, D1 to 1.5 in size. They entrained more snow than you might expect because the moist surface snow plowed through the sandbox of dry facets below once sluffs started gaining momentum.
Weather: Warm and cloudy, with enough sun filtering through the clouds for excellent greenhousing.
Snowpack: Snow surfaces got damp on all aspects that we traveled on, which spurred rollerballs and pinwheels on more northerly aspects which have stayed mostly dry all week. We looked at a number of NE-facing slopes that avalanched naturally during the last cycle. The previous avalanche activity did NOT flush out the facet layer; rather they just scraped off the top layer of the sandbox and left a thin bed surface crust in places. I expect repeat offenders on these slopes once slabs rebuild. We got several localized collapses (radiated about 10 or 15 feet) on low angle east and steeper northeast. We got a mix of easy propagating and non-propagating results with ECTs. Hard to find steep terrain around here that didn’t run naturally during the storm. On a steep ESE slope, the top 6″ is a stout melt-freeze crust and water has percolated through the sandbox. On a steep ENE slope, slabs were getting moist and/or there was some kind of thin surface crust, but the weak layer remained dry or could have been moist in some slopes.
-
- Northerly facing slopes that avalanched last week did not flush the entire weak layer.
-
- Easy propagating results where the entire slab structure is still intact.
-
- Rollerballs and cinnamon rolls on northeast aspects because of the greenhousing today.
