23-24

A skier triggered a small avalanche on a steep north-facing pitch at the Throne, but it did not run far. Photo: GNFAC

Roughly 2 inches of new snow in the parking lot at Bear Canyon.  Up high on the top of Mt Ellis at 8300 feet there was 6 to 8 inches.  Did a column test and it broke on the new snow layer above the crust about 23 cm down from the top at 3 taps from the elbow.  Then we kept going and got it to fail at the weak layer near the bottom of the snowpack at 6 taps from the shoulder.

We traveled into the Throne on a snow-covered road, but unfortunately, by the time we came out at the end of the day, it was a couple of miles of off-and-on mud. I can't really see how the road will last beyond the end of the snowstorm for snowmobiling. By the time we turned off the road for the final ascent to the sled boundary, there was a foot of new snow, and by the top of the Throne, over two feet of new snow equal to 2.5" SWE. 

There was a thick, supportable crust below the new snow, and our primary concern was instability within the new snow and on wind-loaded slopes. A skier triggered a small avalanche on a steep north-facing pitch, but it did not run far. We saw limited cracking on a layer within the new snow generally 4" to 1 foot deep, and got an ECTP11 on this layer in one of our pits on the east-facing pitch near the standard ski track. Our other pits, one lower on the east face and to the north of the saddle at the top of the Throne, resulted in ECTNs between 5 and 15 on this layer within the new snow. While there was some limited wind transport of the new snow, we did not find any slopes that I would define as wind-loaded to test instability. My educated assumption is that you could trigger a large avalanche on a wind-loaded slope right now. 

While we traveled in and skied avalanche terrain, we stuck to the lower-angle end of the spectrum and selected simple slopes with fewer terrain traps. 

The new snow will provide fresh ammunition for wet, loose avalanches as the temperatures warm this week. 

Skier triggered slide in one of the Love chutes dropping into Frazier basin. Skier attempted to ski cut the top of the chute, snow was not reactive. He began to ski the chute and triggered a wind slab about 18” deep which failed the crust from the recent warm stretch. Was carried about 200 feet and managed to self arrest on the side of the chute while the slide continued to the bottom. No serious injuries. 

Toured around Beehive Basin midday 4/6. Very light dusting, no concerns with new snow. Solid 5-10cm supportable refreeze. Hand pits going from 9,400ft to the summit on the SW face of 10,602’ had moist but not wet snow beneath the new crust and a secondary more stout crust 30cm down. The moist snow between the crusts turned to facets as we moved up the face into rockier areas, with depth hoar at ground. We then skinned to the base of 4th of July, which had tracks and refrozen wet loose debris. We dug a pit right below 4th of July @10,200ft and got ECTP12 45cm down within a thin 1cm melt-freeze crust. Surprisingly the snow above the layer was not nearly as saturated as other aspects, we turned around there.

These roller balls and a small wet loose avalanche near Ski Hill that likely happened between 04/03 and 04/04/2024. Photo: GNFAC