AVALANCHES: Location: skiers left, near wood edge of Yogi’s. Skier triggered soft slab pocket at approx. 11200′ elev. in a minor gully which ran downhill to a point where the slope opened up and rolled slightly. At this point the debris from the SS pocket triggered another SS, approx. 1 – 1.5 ft deep at crown, which propagated ~80 – 100′ across and ran approx. 1000′ to the bench at ~10200′ elev. No skiers were caught due to safe stopping zones. The slide did not step down. The surface on which the SS broke was a smooth, clean shear on facets. From what I’ve seen the skiers left of Yogi’s is rarely skied and it appears that the lack of skier compaction during the previous months of the winter was a factor in the quality to shear in this slide. A pit dug on a slope nearby that is more often skied revealed a stronger bond between this week’s new snow and the old surface’s facets and a lower quality of shear upon failure

WEATHER: Overcast, lightly snowing, little to no wind.

SNOWPACK: Approx. 1 to 1.5 feet of new snow in the last week resting on old facets from the long dry period.

UPLOADS:

Skooks Slide in Yogi’s

Skooks Slide in Yogi’s

AVALANCHES: No avalanche activity, but a few other items of note. The snow up the slate has been going strong. we were breaking a new skin track with ski pen at least a foot, up to 15+. On one small NE pocket, 32is degrees, we got one collapse, no cracking Or moving. The pocket was windloaded from this prior weeks winds. off the ridge, at least 3 cornices (relatively small portions of big cornices) had broken off presumably from this week’s winds and new snow, causing some major sloughing in all cases but no slab releases. Sloughs ran up to 400ft downslope. we also skied by cascade in the beaver slide area, where we got a other collapse near the top of the typical ski slope. Again no cracks or movement. It’s deep out there and snow was going strong from about 2pm onward.

WEATHER: Overcast at 11am and by 1pm, snowing hard (1″/hr). No to light winds.

SNOWPACK: About 8″ fresh since tuesday, on top of more than a foot from last weekends storm.

AVALANCHES:

WEATHER: Mostly cloudy with periods of S-1 and S1. Calm

SNOWPACK: Hand test: top layer had 5cm of recent snow (last 48 hours), overlying a sun crust. Below the sun crust were 5 cm of faceted grains, overlying a melt/freeze crust. Hand and pole couldn’t penetrate this melt/freeze crust.

UPLOADS:

AVALANCHES: Widespread, touchy persistent slabs on N/NE aspects BTL. Almost every rollover steeper than 35 degrees we approached today either triggered remotely or with a ski cut., about 10 slides in total. Slabs ranged from 10″ to 18″ thick, 10 to 100 feet wide, and ran up to 500 vertical feet. Failed on near surface facets. that were buried at the beginning of this late-Feb storm cycle. Most were D1, a couple D1.5’s with debris up to 5 feet. Two were remotely triggered from flat terrain. SS-AS-R1-D1/1.5-O

WEATHER: Overcast. S1 midday increased to S3 by late afternoon. Light easing to calm winds.

SNOWPACK: N/NE aspects: 12-18″ of F+ recent snow, no wind affect, over the Feb 16th facet layer (F hard), which is rotten to the ground. Very reactive interface. Widespread cracking, collapsing, and skier triggered slides.

S aspects. 4-6″ of new snow over the most recent Meltfreeze crust (Feb 24 crust), which is 2″ thick and supportive. About 2″ of mixed forms below that crust to the February 20th crust, which is knife hard to the ground. No signs of instability or sluffing on steep terrain.

UPLOADS:

AVALANCHES: 4 different slides visible from basin floor. All from recent wind loading

WEATHER: Snowy with mild winds in the tress, large gusts on ridgelines and peak visible from basin floor

SNOWPACK: Solid with no instability below treeline. Once into the tongue below M-Face…experience numerous collapses but nothing broke loose,. Turned around and skied trees

UPLOADS:

AVALANCHES:

WEATHER: temps low 20’s, cloudy obscuring any chance at valley wide obs, snowing off and on, random squalls but no consistent winds where we were

SNOWPACK: six inches new overnight, ski pen 16 inches. some sluffing on steeper pitches but only new snow moving and pitches not long enough for sluffs to sustain or entrain so I remain to slay pow again. Crusts under new snow on anything with east tilt.

UPLOADS:

AVALANCHES: NW winds loaded Bender (E-facing 38º) just below the ridge and we triggered a slide that was similar to the other two slides there this season. Elsewhere, wind-loading seemed insignificant and unreactive though we didn’t go through any of the chutes. We cleaned off the cornice above Candy’s (E-facing 38º) with no results. The apron below Candy’s / Bender was very grabby skiing on the breakable crust.

WEATHER: 19” in the last 7 days.

SNOWPACK: 2-5cm MFcr throughout most aspects/elevations with the exception of Upper WW where the Feb 24 crust was only 1cm. Sunset right had no MFcr. 5” low density snow skied well today, especially wests and shady. Ski quality is slowly improving on majority of terrain.

UPLOADS:

AVALANCHES: None new observed in the area of our tour.

WEATHER: Clear skies and calm winds in the morning. Clouds (overcast) and wind (light) building from the west by mid day and flurries (s1) by 2:00pm. Temperatures in the upper teens up to mid twenties.

SNOWPACK: New snow from yesterday/ last night totaling 5cm sitting on a sun/ temperature crust from Tuesday? Crust layer more noticeable as the aspect turns more east. 30 cm from the weekend storm. Boot pen: 44cm/ Ski pen: 14cm. HS: 200cm at northeast facing pit site at 10550ft. Results as follows, CT16/ ECTP14 at weekend snow/ old snow interface 35cm down (on 1-1.5mm facets)+ PST33/100End down 35cm on 2015-02-21 all @ 32 degrees.

UPLOADS: