AVALANCHES:

WEATHER:

SNOWPACK: http://avalanche.state.co.us/caic/obs/obs_report.php?obs_id=34924

UPLOADS:

AVALANCHES: No new avalanches or signs of instability observed

WEATHER: Clear skies, light wind on summit

SNOWPACK: The snow was surprisingly cold (and not soft) at 2:30 PM. Thin to moderate crusts were prevalent until low in the bowl and the only moist/soft snow was found on the southern-most slopes below treeline.

UPLOADS:

WEATHER: Few clouds, warm temps, no wind.

SNOWPACK: The Slate River valley looks like a war zone and is an absolutely amazing sight seeing tour for an avalanche geek. Just about every piece of avalanche terrain faceting east or north avalanched during the last cycle. All the way from the Happy Chutes to Pittsburgh. There where many paths that ran, that I’ve never seen run before in the last 5 years. There were small pocket slides, too wide crowns extending for a couple thousand feet, too paths running full track into the valley.

Traveled near treeline and nearly found no signs to instability. One fact that could skew these findings is that fact that we had a hard time finding slopes that didn’t avalanche at some point during the recent cycle. I dug two crown profiles along the way with vary different findings and snowapck structure due to their HS.

1st crown profile at an elevation of 10,900ft on a NE facing slope, HS 263cm. Crown was 90cm tall, failing on squashed 1mm FCxr and 1f- hard. CT and DT tests produced no results on this interface.

2nd Crown profile was at ridgeline, elevation 11,600ft, NE facing slope, HS 138. Crown was 85cm tall, failing on 2mm FC and 4f- hard. ECTP-SC 31 with the whole black popping into the pit on a 31 degree slope.

Take home point: The snowpack felt good and stable where the old snowpack was deep before last weeks large storm. The snowpack was concerning and down right scary where the old snowpack was shallow before last weeks storm.

UPLOADS:

Handcock Peak. Crowns visible on NE and E aspects

IMG_0284

Garfield Peak. Wide crowns through the whole ATL north facing basin and in NTL open paths below.

IMG_0283

Large Crowns on MT Owen’s NE face

IMG_0282

Schuylkill area is litterd with crowns on ENE facing slopes NTL/BTL

IMG_0272

AVALANCHES: None on Coneys.
Schuylkill-observed N-SS throughout the entire ridge line. Most were D1 to D2 and covered all elevations (BTL/NTL/ATL). Appears that most convex slopes . Can see slides on moraines where lower skin track climbs and at the bottom of First Bowl to Thanksgiving Bowl.

Of note is that I didn’t see any slides in Redwell Basin or the gullies above the Gunsight Pass road between Redwell Basin and Wrong Chute.

WEATHER: Clear. No clouds. Calm. Warm

SNOWPACK: Tested a 30 degree slope on a convexity in the valley bottom. No cracking, whumping, or collapsing. Ski penetration was about 15 cm. No instabilities on skin track except heard one whump on ridge line above Cat’s Hat Glades Looked into these glades and didn’t see any failures.

Skied tree line between Cat’s Hat Glades and first bowl without any sloughing or movement. Lower 1/3 of slope was getting a tad heavier and a little sticky. Skis penetrated upper 18 cm of snowpack.

UPLOADS: