Date of Observation: 02/05/2022
Name: Evan Ross
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Crystal. 9,000-12,600 all aspects. Primary traveling around 11,400ft on north and northerly facing slopes were the best snow was.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Nothing new
Weather: Clear. Steady moderate winds in the alpine. Snow blowing off the peaks but no new slab formation.
Snowpack: 40 miles traveling through a whole bunch of avalanche terrain and avalanche paths without much of anything for an avalanche problem encountered.
Loose Dry Avalanches: Our max slope angles reached into the 40-degree range, while average sustained slope angles through the start zones and avalanche paths were probably in the mid-30-degree range. We didn’t see much for initiation of sluffs, but without average sustained slope angles near 40 degrees, a sluff just wasn’t going to get going. Many of the slopes traveled had previously avalanched back in December at some point and refilled back into a deep and strong snowpack.
Wind Slabs: A couple of shooting cracks, 2 to 3″ deep, near treeline, but dinner table size slabs. In the alpine, the old wind-loaded snow was very hard and we didn’t observe any signs of instability. There was snow blowing in the alpine but didn’t find any new slabs formation.
Photos:-
- Old avalanche debris on Emerald Lake
