Avalanches: Fresh crown on Ohio Bowl in the Anthracites. Visibility to poor for more details.
Fresh crown on Ohio Bowl in the Anthracites.
Avalanches: 2 natural slab avalanches on NE aspects NTL, a D2 and D1.5. From the ridgeline, about 6 soft slab avalanches were skier triggered, ran on the storm interface, 1 to 2 feet thick. Most failed on buried surface hoar, a couple also failed on near surface facets. Two were D2 in size. The largest propagated 600 feet across a slope and down a ridgeline, and ran 800 vertical feet, about 18″ deep. Cornices were also touchy; we easily triggered 3 or 4 from a distance, and it looked like one failed naturally or was triggered by a group in front of us. Skier triggered some minor pockets on steep rollovers below treeline, failing on surface hoar layer 8-10″ deep.
Weather: S-1 to S1, about 2″ of accumulation. Moderate SW winds and snow transport, with brief gusts of intense transport. Overcast skies.
Snowpack: ~10″ of storm snow below treeline. Â Storm slabs up to 3 ft thick near treeline, up to 4F in hardness in heavily windloaded features. Observed several shooting cracks an one muffled collapse. Storm interface is either near surface facets or surface hoar, varies from slope to slope.
Skier triggered soft slab, ~600 feet of across and down ridge propagation. Skier top right for scale. SS-AS-R2-D2-I.
SS-AS-R2-D2-I
Touchy cornices. Give em a wide berth.
D1.5 soft slab. NE aspect NTL.
Checking out an 18-24″ crown on a north aspect NTL. Failed on surface hoar.
Natural D1.5 soft slab. NE aspect NTL.
Large cornice fall….looked to be skier triggered by group in front of us.
Buried surface hoar: Culprit weak layer in a lot of the slides observed today.
Minor cracking and small slabs below treeline, on surface hoar
Natural on Climax Chutes, debris hit valley floor. SS-N-R1-D2-I
Natural on Climax Chutes. SS-N-R1-D2-I
Shooting crack. 50 feet long. 2 to 3 feet deep. Not quiet steep enough to slide.
Avalanches: none seen but vis was spotty, got one wind loaded pocket 16 inches deep 30 feet wide to pull out on a 35-degree slope but didn’t go anywhere due to terrain characteristics.
Weather: snowing off and on, at times rather heavily. wind gusts out of the southwest transporting snow and loading top of rollers with wind lips forming in areas higher in basin
Snowpack: ski pen 16-18 inches, light and fluffy but dense and compacted in more open areas
Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: OK. I did not go out at 5:30. Sorry. Got tired of it- wallowing around in the dark trying to figure out if there was snow. –And there is with 10″ new (6″ overnight) and 0.66″ of water content. Snowpack is at winters deepest of 50″. Currently overcast with light snow and 17F. Only a light wind but every once in a while a gust to remind us of how miserable it will be when the wind starts back up. billy
Date: 01/03/2017
Radar at 4:30 this morning is showing a nice pulse of snow over Western Colorado, with a relatively dry swath of air upstream across Utah and Nevada under zonal flow. Heavy precipitation has moved onshore over California. Snowfall rates will wind down through the day as this current pulse ejects to our east and the jet stream splits around Colorado. The jet the realigns our direction tonight, packing abundant moisture on a direct flight from the Pacific, coupled with a cold front swinging north to south across the state on Wednesday. Still some model waffling as to how these dynamics line up, but tomorrow looks very impressive. Snowfall totals between now and Wednesday night look to exceed 20″.
High Temperature: 20
Wind Speed: 15-25, G40
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 2-4″
Low Temperature: 10
Wind Speed: 12-22
Wind Direction:
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 3-6″
High Temperature: 20
Wind Speed: 15-25, G45
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 10-15″
Avalanches: A few small windslab avalanches on ski cuts D1’s 20-30 cm’s deep, 1 slide 50 cm’s but on a very loaded convexity in Moonrise R.
Weather: Snowing throughout the day with strong SW winds and extreme gusts up high.
Snowpack: Still feeling old snow surface on some runs and new snow went from deep to scoured on same run in places! Isolated wind slabs in higher elevation west facing cross loaded features.
Avalanches: We skier triggered numerous soft slabs breaking on the storm interface near treeline, 10″ to 18″ thick, D1 to D1.5 in size, although one was in long, consequential terrain and entrained enough snow to be a D2. See photos. These broke in both wind affected and relatively wind-free areas. The latter slabs were somewhat surprising because the slab was so incohesive and didn’t produce signs of instability or results in column tests. Just enough of a very soft slab over fragile facets to propagate about 100 feet wide.
Weather: Overcast skies and S2. At ridgeline near treeline, Strong SW gusts with intense snow transport at times, with lulls of light winds between. Minimal transport or wind affect below treeline.
Snowpack: Below treeline: 6″ of low density snow over 1-2cm melt-freeze crusts over facets on southerlies and over near surface facets on northerlies. Shallow sluffing on steep terrain, no slab formation yet or signs of instability.
Near treeline: 12″ of low density snow in wind-sheltered areas; drifts up to 18″ thick, either on firm wind board or near surface facets on northerlies and meltfreeze crust over facets on southerlies. Moderate cracking in wind-loaded areas. No instabilities observed on a steep southerly aspect. Touchy storm instabilities on northerly slopes breaking on the storm interface.
NE aspect NTL. Wind slab near a cornice, quickly tapered in depth below the ridge. Ran on firm wind packed rounds (aka wind board).
Pink hat for scale.
NE aspect NTL. Small, skier triggered pockets in wind drifted features.
NE aspect NTL. Skier triggered soft slab, 12″ deep, on storm interface (near surface facets), in a relatively wind protected area.
Same crown looking up.
Same slide, pulled out more slab as it ran down. SS-AS-R2-D2-I
Avalanches: Skier triggered 3 soft slabs on the SH layer. Each slide was 20-25 cms deep, near or below treeline, 20-40 feet wide, running very fast and far but the biggest was D1.5 at best. Interestingly the first one (7 Bowls) was remotely triggered from about 150′ uphill of the crown
3x SS-AS-R1-D1-I
Also notices extensive crowns in the craggy terrain above friendly finish (see photo). not great vis but looked fresh. Perhaps wind slabs releases this morning?
Weather: Light to moderate snow (S1 with period of S2) throughout the afternoon with very little wind near and below treeline. Chilly temps in the low 20’s.
Snowpack: 20-25cms of new snow, very light density with minimal slab formation. Reactive surface hoar layer under the new snow in both protected and open areas. SH resting on a very thin, ~4F temperature crust below todays new snow.
crown
Looking up at the slide
P1021460
P1021461
P1021462
P1021463Avalanches: NA. No instabilities.
Weather: S1 with 10 minute periods of s-1. Light winds from West and NW on ridge top. Minimal wind loading.
Snowpack: Between 10 and 15cm (4 to 6 inches) in past 24 hours. Cornice has developed over the main bowl.
