Thread: PSA: Avy season in CO has begun...

Yes, wrong forum, but think this should get more visibility here. We're all jonesing for pow turns and after a good storm this weekend, we all need this reminder that if there's enough to ride, there's enough to slide.

From CBAC:

Avalanche Today on Mt. Baldy:
"Five of us approached Baldy from the South(Elkton) and observed no instabilities on the South aspect. Entered chute above WSC(Mt. Baldy NW aspect, 12000 feet) and it felt punchy, slabby. Pulled out to the rocks and crack appeared at my feet, and propagated across the face. I clawed at the scree as the slide pulled away probably running 1500' at maybe 18" - 24" deep. It appeared to have run on faceted snow left over from October. Propagated the entire face(maybe 1000 feet? ). The chute held, the fracture was at the mouth of the chute. I was the first one in, so I booted back up through the rocks and we picked our way safely down the ridge to paradise divide. We observed lots of collapsing and cracking through the meadows by paradise divide"

Originally Posted by spthomson

Yes, wrong forum, but think this should get more visibility here. We're all jonesing for pow turns and after a good storm this weekend, we all need this reminder that if there's enough to ride, there's enough to slide.

From CBAC:

that'll wake you up. no caffeine can compare......

rog

That's like a growling dog isn't it. fucking lucky

Dang. Hoping for consistent snowfall and temps with relatively little wind for a couple months. Am I asking for too much or should I move away from continental snowpack?

ya luck is an interesting phenomenon. many moons ago when i was a pup, i was out on a solo tour at about 10,500. i wanted to "just have a look" down into this chute. i inched up to within 5 feet of the edge and all of a sudden i heard a quiet, "pooff". i looked down to see my skis from the rear of the toe piece of my binders forward were suspended in the air with at least 600 ft of chute below and a nice pow cloud down below. i slowly backed up.needless to say, i learned a bit about cornices that day

lucky? darn toot'n.

rog

Originally Posted by Fritz

Am I asking for too much or should I move away from continental snowpack?

oooh, continental, wait for summer

rog

From CAIC's twitter-

^^ WOW

6789

Looks really touchy in that vid. Not to minimize it, but wouldn't be surprised if that was a pretty nasty melt/freeze crust under the from all the warm weather that proceeded this storm. I see that kind of easy release in the new snow layer often in the spring months especially after warm periods.

Originally Posted by Edgnar

From CAIC's twitter-

Nice layer of depth hoar perhaps? Careful boys and girls - looks twitchy.

Originally Posted by spthomson

Looks really touchy in that vid. Not to minimize it, but wouldn't be surprised if that was a pretty nasty melt/freeze crust under the from all the warm weather that proceeded this storm. I see that kind of easy release in the new snow layer often in the spring months especially after warm periods.

Not so sure that was meltfreeze (at Baldy). NW aspect means little sun, no? Probably pretty cold up there at 12k, especially when considering wind. My guess would be October facets or a super hard windcrust. I do know what you're talking about, but I've only seen springtime-meltfreeze/new-snow movements on aspects that have no northern components - typically E or SE faces that get wind deposit to create a nice slab.

Curious to hear if goldenboy chimes in, as he probably has some insight into what was underneath the storm snow. Apparently he was up there poking around on another aspect?

It makes sense that NW wouldn't be in meltfreeze, but you can never be sure by something as vague as NW aspect as some get more sun then others. The aspects not getting sun are definitely not in meltfreeze, they are however setting up facets from the tg right now, at least that my observation from the Gore range recently. Early season snow can be wicked hard to figure out, so many variables, so many subtleties from a rapidly transitioning snowpack. Hopefully it snows hard, everything rips to the ground and we can start over, gotta love CO. Wait till spring!

Originally Posted by Ireallyliketoski

Hopefully it snows hard, everything rips to the ground

word. hopefully it snows hard after that and y'all get a proper reset.

looks like a failure on fall junk. call it what you will...NSF, basal shite, mid-storm layer, whatever...not to be trusted.

that video is crazy... got a good whoompf yesterday while chasing elk. north facing, about 10,000 feet and probably 25 degrees, so no cracking or movement. snow was deeper then expected, 14-16 inches, and you could feel the faceted nothingness under foot. sort of a classic set up -- avalanches are gonna run.

Yeah, it was a bit nasty out there yesterday. The group on the other side of Baldy went up the S side, which was pretty bare, which is why they didn't really see any of the crap Oct snow and went for it on the NW side. For the record, very experienced group.

mtnbikerskierchick, adam, and I were on the other end of Baldy heading up the N side (Baldy is a big, long mtn for those who don't know- we were probably 1 mile away from the slide and out of sight- mbsc swears she heard the slide). We encountered lots of whoompfing and cracking:


and a natural:


and more cracks:


Anyway, we did our best to bail as safely as possible though in retrospect it could have been better. Definitely the touchiest day I've seen in 20ish years of touring (see video). Hand pits revealed only an inch or 2 of facets from October. Some of it was indeed a melt-freeze crust right on the ground. The good news is that many aspects and elevations were bare before the storm. If we keep getting snow it could be allright.

There was a human triggered slide in the Vail zone yesterday. North aspect, about 10,500 feet. Same scenerio: triggered from a short distance, big cracks, new snow sliding off the October facets.

Never too early to be thinking about avalanche safety.

Goldenyboy, how much fresh were you guys seeing? No whoompfing, but we saw some cracking above our line (seperated by rocks) in our transition zone, where the pitch steepened and the wind deposit was more, but about a foot of fresh on low 30s was staying stable. We didn't venture out into the more heavily loaded zones - had a good idea about what would happen if we did. We also saw a double windslab. About a 6 inch slab on top of another 6 inch slab. The top slab was a lot more reactive. Pretty interesting thing to see from this single storm cycle (being that there were two passes).

schofield snotel was 18 or so, I'd say that was accurate but with much more with wind load.

amazing how folks go touring in such shallow early season conditions. if the dragon don't bite, the sharks may.

be careful out there.

rog

That video is crazy.

Stay safe out there guys. Don't let the first runs of the season cloud your judgement.

Originally Posted by Lindahl

Not so sure that was meltfreeze (at Baldy). NW aspect means little sun, no? Probably pretty cold up there at 12k, especially when considering wind. My guess would be October facets or a super hard windcrust. I do know what you're talking about, but I've only seen springtime-meltfreeze/new-snow movements on aspects that have no northern components - typically E or SE faces that get wind deposit to create a nice slab.

Curious to hear if goldenboy chimes in, as he probably has some insight into what was underneath the storm snow. Apparently he was up there poking around on another aspect?

Yeah, that video wasn't from Baldy - I knew that much. But, wasn't sure what aspect it was - I didn't see any clear indication in the video. I've since learned that it was a N-ish aspect. So, yeah, not melt-freeze. Shitty facets that the new snow wasn't bonding to well at all.

Originally Posted by Lindahl

Not so sure that was meltfreeze (at Baldy). NW aspect means little sun, no? Probably pretty cold up there at 12k, especially when considering wind. My guess would be October facets or a super hard windcrust. I do know what you're talking about, but I've only seen springtime-meltfreeze/new-snow movements on aspects that have no northern components - typically E or SE faces that get wind deposit to create a nice slab.

Curious to hear if goldenboy chimes in, as he probably has some insight into what was underneath the storm snow. Apparently he was up there poking around on another aspect?

Had some time yesterday so I dug a quick pit..
Due N face outside of CB @ ~11k. About 2 feet new in this windloaded spot sitting over 15cm/6in of 3mm facets. No crusts at all, soft sugar to the ground. Absolutely everything was collapsing and cracking, I wasn't even willing ski under something steeper than 30 degrees. Creepy out there. I wouldn't doubt that the tip W on that face created some crust that allowed that thing to propagate. That face does curve around W, who knows if three weeks of sun allowed it to crust up a bit.