Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/05/2020
Name: Ian Havlick
Subject: Mount Baldy South Bowl
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 9600-12600
Avalanches: 1 fresh windslab in west-facing Paradise Basin (above Paradise Mine), looked to have failed yesterday morning potentially? Hard to make out depth but 1-3ft deep, not failing on ground. Similar aspect to yesterday’s reported Gothic Persistent Slab.
Weather: Partly cloudy, turned overcast, and then back to partly cloudy skies after 1400. Quite mild and balmy until reaching near treeline where steady light to moderate WNW winds continued to blow.
Snowpack: Snowpack in terrain traveled was generally a mix of surface facets and wind ripple down below treeline, to sastrugi and pencil+ phone book hard slabs in the alpine. Did not dig profile but much probing with poles revealed as expected, stacks of melt-freeze crusts in upper 60cm, with small-grained faceted snow. No significant slabs in south-facing terrain BTL to ATL and skied center of bowl looking for wind ripple without any signs of instability.
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