Mammoth Area BC- Sketch Factor 9

[H-wood]

Skied a peak near June Lakes 2 days ago- killer, stable powder.
Returned yesterday- wind banners ripping up high as a small storm moved in. There was massive lee-side loading and slabbing in just a few hours- very large (and very unstable) pillows formed very quickly. Also felt some very strange things while skinning- jiggly, jello-y vibrations in the snow when I hopped up and down.
What was a happy pow run yesterday was close to survival skiing today- skiing anchor to anchor, ski cutting, straightlining rollover bowls as the surface radiated cracks and slid. I wish I could have gotten some video.
Triggered multiple soft slab slides on convex rollovers, and I remote triggered (from 200 feet away) a larger slab when I jumped on a windridge to check it out- I have never been on snow that was so sensitive.
Below timberline was still incredible powder skiing, deep and stable.
Considering the wind continued for hours afterward, and then we got about a foot of new, it's even sketchier now.
Avy control on the ski area triggered a lot of activity this morning, and there is massive new cornices on all the ridges.
There may be enough wind-loaded and fresh to trigger some of the wind-slab layers that are buried beneath the last 3-4 feet of pow.
Sorry no pics right now, but seriously- heads up.
It's easy to get complacent here, but it might as well be Utah (with more wind-loading) right now.
It sounds like this storm went north too- this conditions may also exist in the Tahoe area.

[pointemstraight]

What peak were you on over by June?

It really is amazing what a few hours can do when the wind starts crankin'... scary amazing.

[H-wood]

We skied off San Joaquin Peak and down the Fern Lake drainage.
We were headed for Pete's Dream on Carson, but that would have been death, so we skied the safest route down. If your headed to the Negs the skin route up is also really loaded and dangerous (as is everything on the E side of the ridgetops).

h

[tarkman1]

Damn. I guess I'm glad that I chose to play around with a pair of Fat Bastards (that finally had drilled after a year) on Sunday.

[Telegasm]

H-wood, thanks for the report... I was considering attacking some steep stuff south of town tomorrow and will use extreme caution. Post your report on sierrabackcountry.org forum too?

[Squirrel99]

What was a happy pow run yesterday was close to survival skiing today- skiing anchor to anchor, ski cutting, straightlining rollover bowls as the surface radiated cracks and slid. It's easy to get complacent here, but it might as well be Utah (with more wind-loading) right now.
It sounds like this storm went north too- this conditions may also exist in the Tahoe area.

Spent some time touring with a local Avy instructor from PNW the other day. He's heading your way in the late spring for a touring trip, but when talking (in relative terms) about different locations and their snow pack this season- he mentioned the Sierras as having quite a nasty layer buried far underneath. Not sure what your pits are showing but found it interesting to note from a 'very general' discussion that Gary seemed sure there would be some serious avy cycles happening in the next month before it consolidates into that famous Spring melt/freeze corn cycle.

Be safe out there.

[H-wood]

H-wood, thanks for the report... I was considering attacking some steep stuff south of town tomorrow and will use extreme caution. Post your report on sierrabackcountry.org forum too?

didn't post anything anywhere else... but sierrabc.org is definitely a good thing.

[H-wood]

Spent some time touring with a local Avy instructor from PNW the other day. He's heading your way in the late spring for a touring trip, but when talking (in relative terms) about different locations and their snow pack this season- he mentioned the Sierras as having quite a nasty layer buried far underneath. Not sure what your pits are showing but found it interesting to note from a 'very general' discussion that Gary seemed sure there would be some serious avy cycles happening in the next month before it consolidates into that famous Spring melt/freeze corn cycle.

Be safe out there.

check out sierrabackcountry.org- it's a good site with a pack profile, and a forum where local skiers post stability observations. according to them it sounds like there is some potentially bad stuff deep in the pack. But in this case, we have a 15-20 foot pack- it would take an atom bomb to trigger that deep, so it's not really the problem right now (although there may be some epic glide slides in the spring).
This is all hearsay because I'm goddamned if I'll dig a 15-20 deep pit.
There has been some huge slides this season, but nothing (that I've seen) has propagated deep into the pack.
Right now, however there are (and this is rare here) several relatively newer layers of not so well bonded wind slab beneath the most recent 4 feet of powder that may pose a problem with more cold temps, snow, and loading.
we've had way more activity this year- but the vast majority has been right after storms, and it's stabilized very quickly after.