Small slide from the cliff bands at about 9500’, on a NE facing slope on Blackmore - looked like it broke pretty shallow sometime after the snow yesterday. Photo: S.K.
Small slide from the cliff bands at about 9500’, on a NE facing slope on Blackmore - looked like it broke pretty shallow sometime after the snow yesterday.
I dug a pit above Silken Falls in the gulley. I found a weak layer of facets breaking about 10" under a wind slab (ECTP15). We did not get any cracking, but the terrain is very serious and even a small slide could be deadly. We did not feel comfortable center punching up the gully. Given how much traffic the gullies are getting, I do not think it is widespread, but it's out there and could avalanche.
Wind and snow this weekend may make this layer more unstable, so it's important to be careful crossing exposed terrain. Either rope up or tun around if it is suspect.
I dug a pit above Silken Falls in the gulley. I found a weak layer of facets breaking about 10" under a wind slab (ECTP15). We did not get any cracking, but the terrain is very serious and even a small slide could be deadly. We did not feel comfortable center punching up the gully. Given how much traffic the gullies are getting, I do not think it is widespread, but it's out there and could avalanche.
Wind and snow this weekend may make this layer more unstable, so it's important to be careful crossing exposed terrain. Either rope up or tun around if it is suspect.
I dug a pit above Silken Falls in the gulley. I found a weak layer of facets breaking about 10" under a wind slab (ECTP15). We did not get any cracking, but the terrain is very serious and even a small slide could be deadly. We did not feel comfortable center punching up the gully. Given how much traffic the gullies are getting, I do not think it is widespread, but it's out there and could avalanche.
Wind and snow this weekend may make this layer more unstable, so it's important to be careful crossing exposed terrain. Either rope up or tun around if it is suspect.
Got in my first tour of the year on Mt Ellis today! I dug a pit on an E/NE aspect at about 7650', and found 90cm of snow. I could not get anything to pop in a shear test, and an extended column had no result. The snowpack very gradually gained density from fist to 1F in about as nice of a gradient as I could hope to see. There was a ~5cm layer of slightly less dense 1-1.5mm facets right at the ground, but they were surprisingly moist and packable. When I finished my ECT, I pried at the back of the column and the whole thing tipped over, taking some dirt with it. This is my singular data point for the year, but my assessment of this small area is that the snowpack is fairly weak, but unstressed where there isn't any wind loading.
There is windloading along the ridge line but the snow is pretty unaffected on the face.
I dug 2 pits at different locations:
Pit #1: ECT N21 N28
Pit #2: ECTX
Both pits were on E slopes around 7,800 ft. Overall feeling good with the snowpack there. It does have a slightly upside down structure but couldn’t get anything to fail.
Observed active windloading on the eastern side of Lick Creek today.
12-18 inch slab broke easily when ski cut and a small but very reactive cornice was rapidly building.
Photo: N. Roe
