Date of Observation: 12/13/2022
Name: Troy Hendrick
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Coneys up to Anthracite Mesa ridge, setting far skiers left skinner instead of traditional semi-bushwacker skinner. We roped into the crown of the slide a few days earlier to get a close up as part of a course. Dug pits on due NE leeward slopes, kicked small cornices on the ridge and skied The Nose.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Nose Stake D1.5 which ran 12/10 and is listed infra in a separate observation.
Weather: Light snow, cold, somewhat foggy later, overcast
Snowpack: Roped into a D1.5 avy crown just skier’s left of The Nose Stake. The pocket ripped on 12/10. We tried to kick off hangfire as we roped in with no results. Skied Coneys on The Nose. Very good skiing, if a little windboard bounce. Dug pit on the far skier’s left skinner. 105 cm snowpack, NE aspect, 30 degree pitch 10,700′. Trashpile of 2mm depth hoar facets from ground up to 25 cm. This is the obvious layer where the 12/10 D1.5 failed. 28-30 cm is a crust. 4f up to fist through rest of snowpack to surface. Temp gradient across 1m is -8 Celsius. This was sortof surprising given the super cold air temps. We would expect further faceting but this snowpack is managing to stay rather warm.
