DATE OF OBSERVATION: 03/21/2015
NAME: Zach Guy
ASPECT:
ELEVATION: 10,000- 12,000
AVALANCHES: More evidence of the recent wet cycle around the Gothic/Copper Creek area. Wet loose and wet slabs, mostly off of E and SE aspects near and below treeline., D1 to D2 in size. Also a few D1 wet loose off of north aspects below treeline in steep rocky areas and D1.5 wet slides off of west aspects near treeline. Surprisingly, we noticed 2 natural D2 wet slabs on northwest aspects above treeline, with starting zones at 12,500 feet. Unknown failure dates on all of this activity, but likely last Tuesday or Wednesday.
WEATHER: Clear skies, warm temps, light winds.
SNOWPACK: Obs from Whiterock area and Snodgrass Area:
Solid refreeze overnight at all elevations (12 inches deep or so) was supportive to boot and skis until 1:00 pm. on SE to SW aspects. After 1:00, started seeing some isolated areas of unsupportive snow below treeline, which likely trended to fully unsupportive but we got off of those slopes. Last night when approaching Gothic, we got a very large collapse on flat terrain after the surface had slightly refrozen.
On north aspects below treeline, the tree shaded slopes held mostly dry snow with a few inches of refrozen wet grains at the surface. More open slopes had wet snow deeper into the snowpack. On northeast aspects below treeline, the snowpack was wet to the ground, mostly supportive on skis but not to boot pen in the afternoon.
UPLOADS: