Southern Madison

From obs on 12/29: "On our way out near the cabin I cut a line close to a creek to see if I could trigger something."

From obs on 12/29: "On our way out near the cabin I cut a line close to a creek to see if I could trigger something."

Widespread cracking and collapsing at Tele Meadows today, primarily in wind-affected areas. Shooting cracks up to 100 feet.

S1 all day, only about 5cm new by 3pm. Winds mod in the AM, light in the PM from the south.

Still pretty thin cover, lots of sagebrush sticking through on the usual ski runs.

Despite a couple of recent observations stating that Bacon Rind could use more snow, we decided to try it. Perhaps we should have listened. Total snow depths ranged from 15 to 24" (39-61 cm in our snowpits), or in shorthand... not enough snow!

We toured up to the top of the Skillet in the northern of the two primary Bacon Rind areas. The thin snowpack was primarily comprised of weak, sugary facets with a thin soft slab (Fist to 4 Finger hardness) on top. In 2/3 of the upper elevation snowpits, there was a layer of feathery surface hoar buried on top of the facets and below the soft slab. Snowpack tests generally indicated instability (ECTPV, ECTP3, ECTP11, and PST 20/100 end).

While we chose not to roll the dice, the slab was thin (7" thick maximum), and we observed indications (slab qualities) that an avalanche most likely would not break widely across a bowl. HOWEVER, similar to what Alex and I saw at Lionhead the day before, it won't take much new or wind-drifted snow to change the equation, driving the avalanche danger up and making avalanches large enough to bury or injure a skier or rider likely. 

For now, it seemed that barely buried logs, stumps, and rocks were the greatest hazard. Once it snows enough to change the skiing quality meaningfully, I will worry about recreating on terrain steeper than 30 degrees due to avalanches. 0.5" of SWE would drastically change the picture.