Date of Observation: 04/07/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Jack Caprio
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Traveled on south to east aspects of Gothic Mtn up to 12,600 ft.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Nothing recent
Weather: Moderate northerly winds kept things cool. Clear skies. Some periods of blowing snow off of Gothic this morning, mostly just swirling or blowing into the atmosphere.
Snowpack: No signs of instability while skiing in steep terrain. There’s about 2″ to 3″ of dense storm snow well bonded to a stout melt-freeze crust (4/5 crust). In exposed areas, winds stripped the recent snow away down to the crust. We found a few pockets of drifted slabs in the bottom half of the mountain; they were in the 3″ to 8″ thick range and unreactive to ski cuts. The largest and most dense of these was halfway down the east face in a concave gulley, and we simply skirted around it, given the consequences of a small slide there. The dry snow surface got moist on southeast aspects and produced a couple of minor rollerballs, while it stayed dry on east and northeast aspects. The 4/5 crust stayed solidly frozen on all aspects through 1 p.m.
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- General surface conditions on wind sheltered slopes.
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- We skirted around the circled area in this concave feature because it felt dense and slabby compared to the surounding snow
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- Color tone contrasting recent/drifted snow and the old crust. Those different surfaces will warm and behave differently this weekend.
