October 26
Collins stake at Alta showed a total of 15" from yesterday's storm. Curious I went for a look and see.
Winds near the end of the snowfall from the northwest had drifted the snow, both low on Greely hill and
high on Baldy.
There was little evidence of significant avalanche activity from the wind. The wind did continue thoughout the day, changing to north then northeast mainly along the upper ridges.
I climbed Greely continuing along the east facing ridge, eventually descending Eddies High Nowhere. Standing there at the bottom, a recent human triggered sluff slide was noted. It's between Piss pass and Gunsite, northeast facing, beginning as a ski cut sluff, spreading and augering a little into the faceted old snow.
It didn't appear anyone was caught, although the debris over ran a poorly placed skin track. Headed south and ascended to the top of Point Supreme, descending So Long. On the way down, I stopped for a quick pit.
There's a little over 20" total snowfall. New snow at the location was about a foot. 6" or so of small grained faceted, a thin melt freeze crust, larger grained facets and a little damp depth hoar on the ground. Shear is moderate at the interface of the old and new snow on the facets. I would expect that to heal quickly with some isolated lingering, as evidenced by the slide on Greely around the rocks.
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