Date of Observation: 03/31/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Baxter Basin area; traveled on North to East to Southeast aspects to about 11,000′.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Ski triggered a 10″ wind slab on a small test slope. Visibility was too poor to see most avalanche terrain.
Weather: Moderate to heavy snowfall. Strong, variable winds. They were initially blowing down the basin (out of the west) and then switched to blowing up the basin (out of the north). Periods of intense wind drifting.
Snowpack: Valley floor storm totals ranged from about 10″ at the Slate TH to 20″ in Poverty Gulch. In wind-sheltered terrain, the snow was fairly low density and cohesionless, and sluffed in steep terrain. The snow got noticeably thicker and denser in wind-affected terrain. Drifts were up to 3 feet thick in some areas, and other areas were scoured down to yesterday’s crust. I got a mix of shooting cracks and nothing on steep drifted features. Cracks were up to 30′ long.
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- Small wind slab triggered on a drifted test slope
