Name: Donny, Will
Date: 2014-12-28
Activity: Level One Avy Course, Tour Day
Location: Red Coon Glades
Elevation: 9200′ – 11,600′
Aspect: S – SE

Weather: Overcast to obscured skies, snowfall throughout day, periods of S2, but less than 5cm accumulation throughout day. Snow was mostly DFs with a short period of graupel.  Light wind most of the day, with moderate W/SW winds above 11,000′. -13ºC at 9200′ @ 10:30; -18ºC at 11,600′ @ 13:00

Snowpack & Avalanche Obs: Not much new to report. Dec. 13th interface still present above 10,000′.  More solar aspects present a harder crust, shaded aspects are more faceted.  Nothing new here.  Top 3cm of new snow was denser than bottom 2-3 cm due to increased winds.  No signs of avalanches or instabilities.

Name: Will Dujardin
Location: Snodgrass Weather Station Pits 12-28-14
Date of Observation: 12/28/2014
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 11120

Weather: Light snow and low clouds, very light wind.

Snowpack: We dug two pits just approx. 3.5 feet deep to the ground right next to each other on slightly different slopes (30 degrees and 37 degrees) on the NE aspect just below the weather station. We isolated two blocks to test the storm snow and the persistent slab in both pits. The 18~” of storm snow sluffed away in both pits to shovel taps. The 30 degree pit we were able to get the isolated persistent slab to go with applied boot pressure, in the 37 degree pit we had the storm slab (just above the top of the shovel in photo 1) go with a single skicut to the back, like a Rutschblock test of sorts, and the persistent slab to go with a boot kick in the same spot. See attached photos to see what the ski cut did in the 37 degree pit. It seems like it’s definitely harder, but not that hard, to trigger that persistent slab, and the slab formed from the recent storms is very touchy, it could definitely knock you down or bury you in a terrain trap, and if it stepped down to the persistent slab it would result in a massive avalanche . We skied back the low angle E-SE aspects to avoid the NE avalanche problem. Sorry for the lack of technical terminology!

Uploads:

I groom for the snowmobile club. I was coming down the east side of Spain’s today, heading north. There was a sizable slide across the trail. It’s been somewhat covered by fresh so I guess it’s a few days olds but it was a good 150′ wide and looks as if it slid form 200′ no idea how deep it was. It took a few 10″ trees with it.

Name: Donny Roth
Location: Snodgrass
Date of Observation: 12/27/2014
Aspect: East, South East
Elevation: 9500-10500

Weather: Few Clouds (mostly convective near high peaks), Calm winds, 4ºF @ 1200 & 10ºF @ 1500

Snowpack: Snow surface DFs going to facets, Ski Pen 10cm, Boot Pen 60cm; HS 70 to 100cm. Widespread, faint whumpfing on flats, no cracking, some noticeable collapsing. Snow cat triggered avalanche on road cut (D1) on 37º degree SE aspect. CTs and RBs produced clean, clear results (mostly CTMs and an RB3 and RB4 – this was a Level I avy course) on “Dec. 13th” interface, now about 50cm down from surface.

Avalanches: Let’s stay heads up. RLB got shredded and the ski quality is excellent right now. The new snow since Dec. 13 is pretty “right side up,” offering solid support while skiing. But that interface is shit. I think confidence levels will go up faster than the problem goes away. In my opinion, all north aspects and any slope with bigger consequences should be approached cautiously and conservatively.