January 8

Bowman, Yellow Jacket, Alexander Basin, Gobblers Knob

Elevations, slope angles and aspects

6200-0400', angles over 35°, all aspects

Snow conditions

Dense sticky snow at lower elevations, with a cap of rime crust in places and a bit of hoar frost. Replaced by dense wind affected snow at upper elevations. Recent wind drifts were up to a coupla feet deep and scouring was down to the old rain crust in some areas.

Rapid settlement of the inverted storm snow was obvious.

settlement

Weather

Partly cloudy to overcast skies, winds(as usual) from the west, consistent 15-20 mph with gusts around 40. Mild temperatures.

Avalanche activity

Strong wind during and after the inverted snow storm produced activity in both new layering and a dramatic full depth slide. Middle bowl had a new snow slide from the point, running into the flats.

Three new snow slides from cornice falls observed in the Toots to Boot area of Alexander Basin.

toots-slides

Upper Alexander Basin experienced, yet another, large full depth avalanche,

alexander-hanging-snowfield

Zoomed

snowfield-zoomed

Dimensions were class 4, about 300' wide, crown depths of up to 8'+, running to the end of the first flat,

hanging-snowfield

about 2000 vertical feet. This area was the last lingering path in northeast facing Alexander Basin lacking an avalanche.

No activity was observed on either the cabin run or main face of Gobblers Knob.

Evaluation

The broken record of wind and snow continues. Stiff dense recent snow should be mostly glued in place. If it isn't, ski cuts may or not release the drifting. The wild card remains with, visible evidence of large full depth avalanches in the recent past. Hopefully mild temperatures and settlement make those an isolated issue?

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January 8 journal

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