February 16

Area:

Gobblers Knob

Location:
Bowman to Yellow Jacket, up the ridge to the top of the Cabin run, descended continuing out Pole canyon to the Porter Fork road.
Elevations, slope angles and aspects:

6200-10200’, angles to 35°+, north, and west.

Avalanche activity:

Middle or Depth Hoar bowl in Alexander, east northeast facing had two of the chutes slide out, cornice fall trigger. Recent, but timing unknown. 1’-2’ deep, distance unknown. The remainder is still in place. The south half of the east chute in upper Alexander also slid, with a cornice fall trigger. Sam depth and timing. That one did run out into the flats, over a thousand vertical.

Cornice kicking in Toots to boot produced large appliance+ drops with only surface sluffing the result as best I could see.

Slopes skied:
Cabin run, from snow line as it is missing on the ridge. Pole canyon staying on the east side, west facing portion of the gully.
Snow surface and conditions:

There was a skiff of snow at the trailhead. Rain or snow was mixed to somewhere around 7000’. Snow above that elevation. 4”-6” new snow. Winds increased with elevation and were building large cornices on the ridges east facing  The northwest facing was scoured with a zipper rime crust till the Pole canyon choke. Lower elevations later in the day had proceeded to melt what snow they received

Weather:
Mild temperatures, winds from the west, gusting over 30mph along the upper elevation ridges. Less, with decreasing elevation.

Evaluation:
A new bout of wind and high density snow have further added to the puzzle. A new round of the pockety avalanche activity was also observed on the easterly aspects. I’d guess, with a couple of days of settlement, the last storm has settled into a cohesive slab, especially with the mild temperatures and wind. This is bridging the facets. A new round of dense snow adds another bridge. Results would be; some slopes have overloaded and naturals observed. Those which didn’t can be separated into categories of wind scoured and wind loaded at upper elevations. The loaded ones would be on a hair trigger, requiring a good sized thump because of the bridging or simply needing a trigger in the sweet spot. It may take a skier or two because of the bridging. Kinda trcky?
Avalanche paths that ran may be reloaded, especially those which ran from the last storm  a week ago. West and southerly aspects retaining a solid crust would have only a localized hazard. East and north, your best guess?

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