From FB message: "Small slide in lower elevation back by lionshead"
From FB message: "Small slide in lower elevation back by lionshead"
We saw this today after it happened. Looked like a snowmobile triggered it. I believe it is mostly south facing. Thanks.
From obs: "We saw this today after it happened. Looked like a snowmobile triggered it. I believe it is mostly south facing." Photo: D. Haluptzok
We saw this today after it happened. Looked like a snowmobile triggered it. I believe it is mostly south facing. Thanks.
We saw two recent shallow wind slab avalanches. No recent slides breaking deeper.
This one at NE 9000'
Pleasantly surprised with what we found at Lionhead. Snow depths are 120-150 cm (4-5 ft)
Good visibility let us look at a huge area today and dig snow pits in 6 places mostly looking at the mid to late January near surface facets. They are generally buried ~2 feet deep.
Locations, test scores, and hardness for this layer:
We saw two recent shallow wind slab avalanches. No recent slides breaking deeper. The extra loading from wind could make this nsf layer more likely to fracture and produce an avalanche. Otherwise, it seems to be losing its sensitivity and will only improve this week with minimal loading.
Weak snow deeper in the snowpack has gained hardness and I doubt it will make avalanches unless it gets a massive load very quickly.
Snow conditions are 5-star
Toured up into the basin below Emigrant to take a look around. HS varied from about 30 cm in wind stripped areas to 100cm around 8000 feet. On a NE aspect at the same elevation we found about 4in of new snow over a slab sitting on a faceted layer, which did not move easily in a hand shear. Heard from another party that they had no results in a pit in a similar location. Large cornice formation on E facing ridge lines. We stayed down low and had great supportable skiing.
