Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location:
Date of Observation: 12/19/2020
Name: Cam Smith
Subject: Emmons
Aspect: South East, South
Elevation: 9,000 -12,000
Avalanches:
Two small wind slabs in Red Lady Bowl. One appeared to have been natural and one was from a skier intentionally kicking off cornices.
Weather: Sunny and felt cold. Clouds and spitting snow moved in around 3. Mostly calm with sporadic gusting up high.
Snowpack: 5” or so of new snow from yesterday. It appeared that the wind hadn’t moved much snow into the bowl in the previous 24 hours. Oddly, on this cold December 19th I had snow clumping to my pole baskets and the snow surfaces was wet on S/SE. When descending around 3:30 the wet surface snow had refrozen into a legitimate crust. I didn’t expect that today!
If nothing else, what’s on my mind is that snow/weather/avalanches can always surprise us. In big ways and small. Stay safe.