Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/01/2019
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Cold and Calm
Aspect: North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: 9,700-11,700
Avalanches:
Small loose snow avalanches. Nothing significant.
Weather: Overcast sky, decreasing in the afternoon. Calm winds.
Snowpack: Storm totals where about 6″. The sun started poking out around 1pm and was settling that snow on sunny slopes. Otherwise that new snow was fist hard, but had that colder slightly stiffer feel. Other then some small loose snow avalanches, we didn’t find any increased avalanche threats from this new snow. No real new sings of recently drifted snow during this recent storm. Other then maybe 2″ here or there. Still was on the lookout for drifted features and using the WSa travel advice.
The alpine sure got raked over a bit by last weekends winds. Lots of wind wales and other wind effect could still be seen with the recent snow on top. While there is some wind effect, the coverage is still looking good on those windward aspects.
Spent some time on similar terrain features near this small human triggered avalanche from 12/29. Those old windslabs where pencil hard and appeared very difficult to trigger. Digging on an ESE aspect at about 10,600ft, the 12/19’ish NSF was still the layer of concern. ECTP Hard, with slab fractures or (N results) on the upper weak layers.
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