Date of Observation: 02/11/2022
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Through cement plant up a well established track. Lots of skiing done here, tracks all through the woods and gullies. coming out of the woods going up the standard ridge pointing north. About 2/3 up on the ridge leading to the flatter part we were right on the rounded edge on a 20 ish degree slope. If you would have bet me will it slide here I would have bet $100 with 99.999% certainty that this would never go. I would have lost that bet. 27 years in the backcountry, go figure.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: We heard a whoomp, I looked thinking it would just settle as it usually does, but in a moment it started moving and both skiers fell. Due to low angle movement was very slow, both skiers got held up in trees just 25 feet lower. In all a minor event, one lost pole no injuries, but a definite wake up call. The crown was all of 10″ tall tapering to 4″ to the north west. The whoomp propagated to the south around the edge of the ridge and set off another 45ft wide sluff of blocks 8 inches thick that ran down about 500 ft from the crown. It propagated to the top of the ridge about 100ft above the trigger.
Weather: Sunny, no wind, not too warm, but not too cold.
Snowpack: no new snow in weeks, an aging snow pack.
Photos:
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[accordion_item title=”Avalanche Report #1″ parent_id=”my-accordion” open=”false”]Estimated avalanche date: 02/11/2022
Number of Avalanches: 1
Location
Location: Mount Whetstone
Location Specific:
Start Zone Elevation: NTL: Near Tree Line
Aspect: E
Characteristics
Trigger: Skier
Trigger modifier: Unintentional
Type: Hard Slab
Failure Plane: New/Old interface
Size
Relative Size: R1 small
Destructive Size: D1.5
Avg. crown height (inches): 10
Avg. width (feet): 60
Avg. vertical run (feet): 500
Involvements
# of people caught: 2
# of partial burials: 0
# of full burials: 0
Additional comments: The snow pack is losing it bonding. The layer that the snow moved on was the old layer from two weeks or so ago when we got the 6 inch storm. However, the entire pack is becoming sugar. The snowflakes are rounding off and becoming ball bearings all the way down as the pack ages. Getting less predictable out there.
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