Red Burn Days
January 23
Yesterday I traveled from Cardiff to Mill B South, getting a few pictures and viewing the slide in the back bowls of Mill B. My camera failed so I returned, this time starting in Broads.
I'd spotted this slide on Dromedary on the 12th and wanted to return ever since.
I also viewed another slide off the diving board in Broads on the 14th, the reason I traveled through Broads first.
The diving board slide was viewed from the top of Gobblers, but avalanche school started the next day and there were a number of other slides to look at after that ended.
The weather remains delightful in the mountains, not the case in the valley where it's a red burn. The view is from the top of Bonkers. Someone had been in Broads before me, done some traveling and had been skiing the Bonkers apron.
There'd also been a couple of flip floppers through the area climbing up Bonkers for unknown reasons. They'd given up prior to reaching the ridge.
I'd forgotten my whippet and was a bit nervous on the upper portion, slip sliding on the boilerplate, taking a couple of spills without a slider, but the ski down wasn't unpleasant although the snow was variable.
Passing through Broads on my way to the back bowls I discovered a couple of new slides, both glide avalanches, possibly from the warm temperatures and marginal refreezes earlier in the week. The new glide avalanche had over run the older slide during the storm.
A smaller slide, possibly initiated when the large glide avalanche pulled off the rocks above the diving board was noted and photographed. Kinda pretty with the bigger glide crown in the background.
The slide off Dromedary into Broads wasn't as large as expected only involving a portion of the back bowls with the debris connecting the slide in Mill B mostly covered by time and wind blown snow.
The slide on the Mill B side was another story altogether.
Descending off the shoulder of Dromedary was fun in a masochistic sort of way. Slick bed surfaces, a bit of dense powder, jumping crowns and side slipping all have a tendency to hold a person's interest.
On the way down, a couple of photos were taken. This one shows the debris flowing into and across Lake Florence.
Looking up from near the bottom with 500 or so feet of the path still below.
One of the favorites for skiing, but it'll be awhile before it comes back into shape.
The mission a success or nearly so, since late afternoon and flat light always conspire with getting the great photos as I'm learning.
This was the second biggest slide in the core of the Wasatch, the other being the natural off the east face of Kessler.
Now with so many slides, a good share explosively triggered, we may not have the good winter for skiing, even after the next storm since a lot of the starting zones have shallow snow, presently rotting away.
We'll see.
