December 6
Grizzly Gulch, Silver Fork, Days Fork, Spruces
Elevations, slope angles and aspects
7500'-10k+, angles over 35°, all aspects.
Snow conditions
Recent storm snow has settled to less than a foot. It was a little inverted in places and a bit stiff.
Under the new, there is extensive variability. East and west facing have a crust of variable thickness and supportability,
Wind from several directions, including east, have scoured and drifted in an almost indiscernible pattern.
For example, I found over two feet of snow low in the west bowl of Silver Fork drainage. In the northeast facing starting zone, there was 12-16".
Hideaway park, northwest facing, had deeper snow off the ridge with similar 12+ inches lower. West bowl crusted under the new, Hideaway rot.
Upper Days was all over the map because of the terrain variation.
South facing, new snow only, with anomalies dependent on aspect changes.
Snow line is below 7500', it gets scratchy below about 8k.
Weather
Cold temperatures with light wind. Sunny in the morning, increasing clouds, add a little wind in the afternoon, I bailed.
Avalanche activity
Numerous natural shallow soft slabs and sluffs were observed from the storm period.
Most were pockets initiating at the old surface, digging into older layering here and there.
They were running to lower angled transitions. Because of the shallow snow pack, many slides left a bed surface and not much else.
Snow pit
Complexity adds confusion
I pole probed all day trying to find what I thought was a representative sample, stopped and dug a couple of times.
Common theme, weak snow under the new, with facet-crust sandwiches, widespread.
Evaluation
Weather guessers have another storm incoming, light density and cold temperatures so...
I'd expect another round of shallow slides.
With winds predicted to increase, drifted locations could receive enough snow to break into older layering, some at the ground.
A clean out for a fresh start is unlikely.
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