Another south aspect ever so slightly west of the previous had a very fat, or loaded start zone that was avoided.

Avalanches: During the Christmas natural cycle, the south bowl on the east side of the divider rip, avalanched naturally wall to wall from about 1/3 of the way down the track, at the slopes steepest slope angeles. The south bowl on the west side of the divider rib had also released naturally during the same storm with about 3/4th of the start zone pulling out from what looked like westerly wind loading. Both of these crowns are now nearly filled in and difficult to see.

20160102-Ruby

Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: Skied on a south-southwest aspect slopes 30-35 degrees with no current signs of instability. Thermometer was broken, but very cold in the morning and warmed nicely in the sun in the afternoon. Warm enough for the snow to get a little moist, but I don’t think it will have a crust tomorrow. Winds were light to non-existent from the west and the temperature quickly plummeted again as the sun went down.
Probing showed 150-170 cm average depth with a consistent snow pack and it seemed there was little in the way of basel weaknesses on this sunny slope. At higher elevations it felt as though there were older crusts in the snowpack, but they were not super pronounced. Good quality, supportive skiing with a ski pen around boot top and boot pen to the knee.
Lots of small slides from the light snow earlier in the week. All D-1’s, sluffy or very shallow slabs, but widespread on N-E aspects in steeper windloaded areas.

Avalanches:
Weather: Clear, Calm with a strong valley temp inversion.
Snowpack: No instabilities noted throughout the tour. Persistent slab structure noted on all slopes and at all elevations with varying thickness of slab, with overall HS in this alpine zone generally >1.25M. Fresh cracks noted on one slope (~35*) NTL facing SW from the previous day’s snowmobile traffic, but the compressive support seemed to hold it in place. Rapid settlement from Xmas storm snow continues, and on steep Southerly aspects (>40*) many trigger points / shallow spots in the slab seem easy to hit now again. Pronounced Surface Hoar found from about 10,500’ down to valley floor.

Avalanches:
Weather: 10:15 @ 9000’ Partly Cloudy, Calm and too cold to take a temp; 3mm SH; top 20cm of snow gone to facets; HS: 80cm; BootPen: 10cm SkiPen: 60cm
11:00 @ 9,500’ Partly Cloudy, Calm and -8ºC; SH; HS: 60cm; SkiPen: 5cm BootPen: 60cm
13:00 @ 10,600 Overcast with high, thin clouds, Calm and 1.5ºC; HS:70cm; SkiPen: 10cm BootPen: 70cm
Snowpack: Many, large whumpfs in low-angle terrain below 11,000’. Average snow depth was between 60 and 80 cm. This southwest aspect was a facet-sandwich, with about 30cm of basel facets and 20cm of NSF surrounding a 1F- “slab” in the mid-pack. We skied a 35º slope and had no signs of instabilities.

Avalanches: No recent avalanches observed . Evidence of xmas slides are present, but becoming harder to observe. Did see a fresh cornice fall triggered slide within last 4 days on steep cliffy area on east facing slope on Gothic
Weather: Cold morning warmed with intense solar during day. Around 1300, increasingly overcast skies put damper on any further heating. Calm winds.
Snowpack: Widespread surface hoar and near surface faceting last two mornings. Temperature profile in 130cm pit showed very strong gradients in upper and lower snowpack. -10 to -19C in upper 30cm and -7 to 0 degrees in lower 10cm in a pit South facing at 10,000ft.

Numerous large collapses on 10-30 degree slopes on southern half of compass BTL. ECTP14 SC, numerous CTM and RB6 sudden collapse on a rush block test preformed on a south facing, BTL slope 22 degrees in steepness. Thin layer of moist 3mm facets failed within a 50cm snowpack in this location.

Avalanches:
Weather: Scattered, thin clouds increased in coverage and thickness through the day. Calm winds. High of 34 at 10k
Snowpack: Widespread near surface faceting.
Checked out the bedsurface of a Christmas cycle avalanche on ESE aspect above treeline. Above the crusty bed surface, there was a foot of recent new snow faceting quickly. Advanced 1mm facets above the crust, widespread, F hard.
1 crown profile and one test profile on S aspects near treeline, showed 70 to 100 cm slab over crust/facet sandwiches. The facet/crust layers were more continuous and more reactive where trees had shaded the snowpack. See attached profiles and photos.

Crown Profile, S aspect near treeline

Test profile, S aspect NTL

Crust facet sandwich anyone? S aspect NTL, below 90 cm slab.

Crown profile, S aspect NTL

Bed surface of Christmas cycle slide. ESE aspect ATL. Advanced facets forming above crusty bed surface.

Avalanches:
Weather: Sunny, Clear and Calm with temps in the teens
Snowpack: ASPECT: mostly on the Snodgrass road grade
SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: no new signs of instability around the Snodgrass TH, we where able to produce cracking and collapsing in the upper meadow while exploring on the road. Snowshoe pen 8cm

Avalanches:
Weather: -20F at 7 a.m. warming to 15F midday. Clear and calm.
Snowpack: 1mm surface hoar forming in meadows and open areas South of the Anthracites. While skinning with a large group, experienced whoomping near treeline on South and West aspects.