Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/10/2019
Name: Sam Roberts
Subject: Coneys
Aspect: North, North East, East
Elevation: 9600′-10380′
Avalanches:
Saw a small point release slide in Coon Basin on Mount Emmons N aspect R1D1
On the way to Coneys we saw R1.5 D2 on the South side of Mount Baldy around 12000′
Weather: Sunny all day with little to no wind in the valley bottom. The morning started at around -18 degrees C and warmed up to -8 degrees C by the end of the tour. There was abundant westerly winds on the mountain tops with a lot snow transport.
Snowpack: There is more snow out there but its still pretty scary. On the way out to Coneys there was widespread woompfing and cracking on the flats away from the skin track. Once we did the uphill into Cat’s Hat glades we dug a pit on a 29 degree slope facing NE-E at 10380′. We found a solid spot and found 66cm of snow where three layers were present, the new snow (10cm of F hard stellars), a large slab structure (top 20cm F hard rounded grains and the lower 20cm 4F hard rounded grains), and finally that lovely basal facet layer (16cm F hard 2-3mm facets). As we were setting up for an ECT, the column failed on isolation in a very sudden planar Q1 fracture on the basal facet/slab interface that propagated across the entire column (so ECTP 0?). Frightening results, so we stuck to lower angle terrain and ended up getting some pretty nice turns and no one got any core shots.
Photos:
