From obs (2/4/22) on Divide Peak: "the wind was cooking for most of the day and each lap the skin track was covered in places. There was wind loading along the ridge the snow was pretty cohesive and wanted fracture and propagate but I was not surfing steep enough slopes for this to happen"
I toured up to the East shoulder of divide to surf the 30 deg east facing slope
the wind was cooking for most of the day and each lap the skin track was covered in places
There was wind loading along the ridge
the snow was pretty cohesive and wanted fracture and propagate but I was not surfing steep enough slopes for this to happen
On the way out a surfed over a steep roll over that fractured and slid
it appeared to have slid on the new snow interface
I would not have trusted any slopes that were getting loaded today
attached are the photos
Dug on Blackmore today. Aspect: 100 degrees. Elevation 9600 feet. Winds were moderate. HS 105cm. Concerning layer was Interface between older January snow and recent snow approx 92cm from the ground. This layer was very visible within the pit. Multiple Extended column test were done. All with similar results ECTN9 on this layer. Seems like there just wasn’t enough load on this yet to be a problem in this very specific area. Areas that are more loaded with this layer present are probably a different story. Going forward with caution based on these obs.
Went for a ski in the Mt Blackmore area this am. Temps were cold in drainages, but surprisingly warm in the sun. The objective for the day was to ski the mellow ramp spilling East off of the North ridge of Mt Blackmore. The East face of Blackmore had clearly seen significant wind. We stopped to dig a pit in the shelter of a terrain feature before ascending further. Our result of ECTP 3 at 135cm (total snow depth of 160cm) was a red flag, and turned us around quickly. The ECT failed underneath a 5cm thick knife hard Wind Slab on a fist hard layer of mixed grains containing 0.1mm FC and 1.0-2.0mm GP.
This morning while ascending a line on Sawtooth Mountain (Lower Novocain) we triggered an avalanche (ASu-SS-R2-D2-O) that caught and carried my partner an estimated 180M and partially buried him. His leg and hand were unburied and excavation of the head was done in less than 2 minutes of the incident. The avalanche only involved new snow from the last 48hrs and was triggered on a MF crust/facet combo 30cm down(formed 1/30/22). The avalanche was 30cm at its deepest and 20-30M wide and ran 250M. We were lucky to find both skis and poles a little ways downslope.
This morning while ascending a line on Sawtooth Mountain (Lower Novocain) we triggered an avalanche (ASu-SS-R2-D2-O) that caught and carried my partner an estimated 180M and partially buried him. His leg and hand were unburied and excavation of the head was done in less than 2 minutes of the incident. The avalanche only involved new snow from the last 48hrs and was triggered on a MF crust/facet combo 30cm down(formed 1/30/22). The avalanche was 30cm at its deepest and 20-30M wide and ran 250M. We were lucky to find both skis and poles a little ways downslope. No injuries were sustained.
We both agree that we were trying to outsmart the instability that was present on steeper S facing terrain and should have turned around much sooner, we were very lucky. There was 30+cm HST in favored areas and the high winds from 1/31/22 formed some sensitive windslabs in specific areas.
Dug in Maid of the Mist Basin. Aspect 100 degrees. Elevation: around 9500. HS 165cm. ECTX. Quick shovel shear test produced no planar results. Very isolated and stubborn soft slabs high along ridge top in predictable locations.These were only a couple of inches thick.
We noted no signs of instability between Hylaite peak and Mt Bole (we conducted quick hand pits and shovel shears along the route). There was a large cornice collapse on an east facing ridge to the west of Divide Peak (photo) and, with sunny weather in the afternoon, we watched out for large overhanging cornices that were getting backed in the sun (photo). On the northeast face of Elephant Mountain, at ~9850ft, we recorded a sudden planar Q1 shear with easy effort @15cm in a shovel shear test (photo). Although this site was in a small, isolated pocket of wind loading, we will be watching this layer closely going forward.
We found an overall very variable snowpack in the alpine, with deeper wind affected snow on leeward features, usually sporting a thin to moderate wind board and very shallow, hard wind affected snow on windward features, usually rocky. Below and near tree line, snow was soft and cold on northerly aspects and a bit squishy and warm on more southerly slopes. In the couloir it’s self, we found a shallow snowpack averaging 30-70 cm in depth. Lower in the couloir we found a 6-8cm faceting crust over large facets. It was not reactive to non-SWAG hand pits and shear tests dug throughout the up route. Higher (approx 1/2 the way) in the couloir, the snow transitioned to rounded, hard to very hard (1F to P, some places P+ or K) wind affected snow uniform throughout the depth. This only changed on the more southerly parts, often near rock, where the snow was faceted and softer (4F to F), being unconsolidated and loose in a few places.
