March 20

Brighton-Catherine Pass-Wolverine-Patsy Marly-Grizzly Gulch-Silver Fork

Elevations, slope angles and aspects

7800-10800', angles to 35°, all aspects

Snow conditions

2-6"? new snow over a mostly crusted base.

New snow amount at upper elevations unknown because the wind was cranking.

Below about 8500', in sheltered terrain, new snow was well behaved with a little surface sluffing.

Upper elevations were a mix of boilerplate, satstrugi and wind drifts with visibility, poor.

Weather

Overcast skies with snow showers, moderate temperatures. Winds were from the south, below 15 mph off exposed ridges, gusting over 40 mph along upper elevation ridges.

Avalanche activity

Several wind drifted pockets were ski cut between Brighton and Grizzly Gulch.

cracking

One remote trigger just above east pass of Silver Fork.

epass

Skiing down the ridge, wondering how to access Silver Fork, collapse and avalanche provide the way.

Slide was a wind drifted area about 30' wide. It was up to a foot deep and ran several hundred vertical.

Evaluation

Stability was variable as hell.

Wind drifting at upper elevations scattered and unpredictable because of high wind. Drifts may be well down off ridges.

Mid and lower elevations had good stability.

Weather guess has more wind before it calms down and actually snows?

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