Climax Chutes

Date of Observation: 02/25/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: A look at natural avalanches on Climax Chutes. Several of these avalanches were reported in an observation on Wednesday.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Widespread mid-storm avalanche cycle in Climax Chutes. Per a previous observation, most of these likely ran early Wednesday morning. Thin cloud cover obscured good views of crowns, but aprons below each Climax Chute had a substantial amount of debris with two paths creating very large debris piles. Small portions of some features may not have failed, but overall Climax looks to have cleaned out a major portion of the storm snow.
Weather: Just hazy enough to muck up clear photos of the start zones Friday morning.
Snowpack:

Photos:

: Substantial debris was visible beneath these Climax Chutes.

: The two largest Climax Chutes sent debris out of view below stopping just short of the Slate River. One, if not both, of these paths was a D3 avalanche.

Avalanche Report #1

Estimated avalanche date: 02/23/2022
Number of Avalanches: 1

Location

Location: Mount Emmons
Location Specific:
Start Zone Elevation: NTL: Near Tree Line
Aspect: NE

Characteristics

Trigger: Natural
Trigger modifier:
Type: Soft Slab
Failure Plane: Old snow

Size

Relative Size: R2 small
Destructive Size: D3 – could destroy a car, wood-frame house, or snap trees
Avg. crown height (inches):
Avg. width (feet):
Avg. vertical run (feet):

Involvements

# of people caught:
# of partial burials:
# of full burials:

Additional comments: Crown not visible but debris up to 6 feet deep across the Nordic track in flats. I suspect this would have mowed trees down if this path didn’t run every year.

Avalanche Report #2

Estimated avalanche date: 02/23/2022
Number of Avalanches: 3