March 10

A friend came into town from Montana.

I needed an attitude adjustment from too much school so we did a tri canyon tour.

pano

Alta guard station, Flagstaff, upper Days,

pow

main Days,

day-view

 

gully

Spruces, Reynolds,

reynolds

Butler Basin, Wilson chutes, Millcreek

Elevations, slope angles and aspects

6200-10k, angles over 35°, all aspects

Snow conditions

2-6" recent snow over a crusted base.

The old snow crust was variable and in many areas, actually, consisted of a crust, snow, crust sandwich.

It was quite hard and slick where scoured by the wind, otherwise spongy.

The new snow wasn't quite enough to eliminate feeling the old surface, except on lower angles.

eights

Bonding was good other than the most drifted locations

South and east facing crusted after going into shade, the result of day time heating.

Weather

Clear skies, temperatures cool in the morning and on the shady side. Warm and spring like in the sun.

Wind from the north along the ridges, gusting to around 15 mph at 10k.

Avalanche activity

board-lapper

Limited to shallow wind drifts

boingo

and sluffing on the steepest slopes

slide

Probably some point release sluffs on the sunny side.

Evaluation

cardiff

As has been the case with recent storms

broads

snow is stable and well behaved, with a few wind drifts on lee aspects, sluffing on steeper slopes and wet slides from day time heating.

That was good fun!

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