Upper elevation slopes that harbor dry and crust-free snow after Thanksgiving’s onslaught are the areas most suspect for triggering an avalanche. These slopes are also where most of us are looking to ride and sit at elevations over 2,500′. If you are headed out today (we may see clearing skies…?) there are two things to keep in mind:
1- A bump in wind from the Northeast last night may have created shallow wind slabs just off the ridgelines. These should be easy to identify by keeping an eye on the surface texture and looking for areas of stiff wind deposited snow. Quick hand pits can help assess the reactivity of any slabs found.
2- In general we have little information for terrain over 3,000′. What we do know is 2-4′ of ‘Thanksgiving’ snow sits on top a variety of old surfaces, one of these being a layer of small facets near the ground. With the lack of natural avalanche activity during last week’s storm cycle and snow pits showing stable snow at 3,000′, plus four days now since the end of the storm, all signs point to a stabilizing pack. However, caution is still warranted as an avalanche breaking in the facets near the ground would be large. Don’t forget your safe travel practices if venturing onto steep committing terrain, namely, only expose one person at a time and watch your partners carefully.
Terrain below 2,500′:
Rain that fell last week has now frozen and a crust exists under 2-6″ of new snow; dust-on-crust riding conditions. Freezing of the snowpack has stabilized these lower elevations. We did get a report yesterday of a large avalanche that was spotted in the Tincan Trees area – suspected start zone is above treeline and under the CFR ridgeline (2,500′). The slide is suspected to have occurred sometime late Sunday or early Monday. If you have any information about this avalanche please let us know!
Photo below of the CFR avalanche (credit: Ray Koleser).
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