Couple More Remote Triggers

Date of Observation: 03/25/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Brush Creek out to Teo

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: East, 9,700ft. Remotely triggered a small avalanche from a couple of hundred feet away. This was a wind-loaded terrain feature and a lot of the feather isn’t steep enough to avalanche. The crown is estimated to be 60 to 70cm thick. I didn’t get to check the crown.

East, 10,100ft. Remotely triggered a D1.5 from 15 feet away. The avalanche propagated above and into steeper terrain. The slab was 65cm thick and around 280 feet across. The weak layer was the 3/20 crust collapsing into the 3/15 crust. The average slope angle of the bed surface was 40+ degrees.

Weather: Obscured with poor visibility. Light to moderate winds at lower elevations. I wore 2 down coats and a shell, must be getting soft.

Snowpack: Hunting some obvious signs of instability and they were somewhat hard to find. In general, the faceted crusts in the upper snowpack were similar to those in the NW Mountain forecast area. On some occasions, I got results with last week’s storm snow failing on the 3/20 crust, and in others, the 3/20 crust was collapsing into the 3/15 crust. I only got two notable collapses while traveling through the terrain. HST since yesterday was 4″. Visibility was poor, but what below treeline terrain I could see didn’t have a notable natural avalanche cycle last week.