Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/26/2019
Name: James Bivens
Subject: Windslab Sensitivity in Evan’s Basin and Red Lady Glades
Aspect: South East, South, South West
Elevation:
Avalanches:
The top eastern face of Evan’s basin had a few older looking avalanches. Lower down, we observed a D2 avalanche on the eastern aspect of Evan’s Basin below treeline that appeared to have been remotely triggered by sleds. We didn’t see the party and the slope appeared to have been heavily wind-loaded. We also observed another similarly sized avalanche lower down on the same eastern aspect; this one appeared to have ran naturally after wind-loading. We also noticed some reactivity on the final (steeper) pitch before the road when we triggered a little windslab.
Weather: Sunny and super windy above treeline and moderately windy below treeline (even down to Kebler Pass where we received some helpful pushes from the wind while skating back to the trailhead). Further north and west there appeared to be a mix of more wind and lower hanging clouds (for example, we could not see Mt. Owen clearly from the summit of Red Lady).
Snowpack: The snowpack felt supportive with no collapses or shooting cracks (except for the little windslab below.) The skiing was lovely in dense, soft snow, but there were patches of snow in direct sunlight at lower elevations that were starting to heat up (before potentially refreezing into crusts tonight).
Photos:
