Date of Observation: 03/13/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobiled on various aspects to the headwaters of Cement Creek, up to 12,000 ft.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: More small wet loose activity today at all elevations, southern half of the compass. A few fresh cornice falls on Double Top to D1.5. A handful of small to large wind slabs that probably ran Friday above treeline. One deeper and fresher looking slab avalanche on a SE facing slope above treeline on Gothic Peak that ran sometime in the past few days.
Weather: Warm and sunny most of the day. Clouds quickly increased to overcast from 3 to 4 p.m. Moderate ridgetop winds this afternoon were starting to drift snow.
Snowpack: Still getting fairly consistent shooting cracks and remotely triggered mini slabs in creek beds below treeline on untrammeled shady aspects. Signs of instability diminished as I got higher in elevation, although I did get easy propagating results under a 2 foot slab on the Double Top Ridgeline (NE aspect, 11,600′). These instabilities are all on the sandbox layer, 18″ to 24″ deep, on average fist to fist+ hard and 2mm in size. Tried snowmobile cutting several hard wind slabs above treeline on small, supported features and the only result was me getting bucked off the sled.
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- Large fresh-looking crown on SE side of Gothic Peak.
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- One of several wind slabs, SE aspect ATL. Likely ran Friday
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- Better vantage of the Scarp Ridge slide. Some small wet loose in the background (Owen) and foreground (Peeler Peak)
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- Remotely triggered mini persistent slab above a creek. 10,800 ft, ENE aspect.
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- Annotated creek bed mini slab. Remotely triggered. 9,900 ft NW aspect
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- Shooting crack, NE aspect BTL
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- I’m fascinated by how these collapses often cross creeks over snow bridges.
