Date: 12/27/14
Location: Red Lady Bowl (along with the rest of town)
Elevation: 9,000-12,400ft
Aspect: S/SE

Weather: COLD !!! -10F at TH at 0830. 11F back at TH at 1300. Slight inversion found up high, but felt minimal. Clear, except for cold air induced clouds clinging to summits on North faces. Light intermittent winds out of NE.

Snowpack & Avalanche Obs Surface snow was remaining dry on S/SE aspects and no evidence of yesterday’s thin melt-freeze crust was noticed as of 1230. Surface faceting already beginning to happen due to cold temps. Xmas storm slab seemed a bit stiffer today then yesterday but still dry and low density on top. Noticeable and wide spread settlement cones seen on skin up through the forest. Also saw evidence of a few old natural slides low in Redwell Basin on steep S/SE aspects, running on Dec 13th interface it seemed. Some slight cracking in wind stiffened snow at ridge top, but no other instabilities found. Supportive ‘mid-pack’ seems to begin to disappear around 11,000′ on down to 9,000′ on shadier, colder aspects.

Clouds moved back in (after all, one nice day a week is all one can expect) with snow starting after midnight.  Steady but light density snowfall with 5″ new and water 0.25″.  No wind and snowpack up to 28″.  Currently obscured, light snow and 16ºF.  New snow, being light and with no wind, is not yet having much effect on the snowpack ass of yet.   Billy Barr

Now that there is decent sun and good visibility i see that more slides beyond the saddle between Gothic and Snodgrass actually did run on Snodgrass.  Many of the areas north of the peak ran as well as some sluffs lower down and about 25% of the area in the two largest runs (that i used to call numbers 15 and 16 back in the day i used to check on a regular basis) have run.  Almost all fractures were shallow and ran in the early part of the storm and have been windblown back in (which is why i did not see hem in the flat early day light today).  –I would say about 15 slides in the Snodgrass through Gothic area.  Have not gone up valley.  billy barr

12/24 Good visibility and views of all the recent avalanche activity:

Observed 12/23/14

12/23/14

Observed this morning at end of peanut lake rd.

West aspect NTL:  Long Shot: SS-AE-R3-D1.5- O/G: 60cm at deepest, 40’ wide, ran 400’. 3 different interfaces were seen in crown. See photos. Another slide in Way Long but could not see if it was slab or loose snow, put debris 400’ down.

West aspect NTL: SS- AEr-R3-D2- O. Triggered remotely from approximately 6 feet from a 4lb hand charge in Lean. Crown was 90cm deep (4F to 1F) on Dec 13th crust. 70’ wide, ran 500 feet to Round 2. Debris was 4-6 feet deep.

Strong, steady wind all night but with only light snow and staying quite mild. Past 24 hours has 5″ new snow and water 0.37″. Wind letting up slightly towards sunrise and snow picking up a bit.  No visibility, currently 22ºF.  Good snow transport from the wind.

-Billy Barr