20-21

Back to FLanders today. At 8400 feet on E aspect we found 20cm of low density newer snow on top of the October crust. In terrain below cliffs this has accumulated to more like 40cm. It is well bonded to the crust, and we were unable to get any cracking or sluffing on steep slopes. Conditions are variable at this elevation, with tree sheltered terrain having as little as 15cm of snow. For what it’s worth it seems to me that people are much more keen to get out than usual this year, I have seen way more people than seems reasonable carrying their skis through the forest trying to get up high.

From IG message: Norther Bridgers is seeing a lot of avalanche hazard. Deep wind slabs where I was on Hardscrabble (SE aspect and NE). On my skin out I saw two avalanche crowns on the NE side of Pomp Pk. One had a party of two that triggered it and they were starting to descend away from avy terrain. Asked some other skiers up there what they saw and similar findings throughout the area. Dug one pit that showed facets on the ground covered by hard, icy snow with wind loaded snow on top of that. On my descent of Hardscrabble i picked my way thru the exposed rock and when I got into deeper snow it propagated about 60% of the time but did not slide really. Sorry I don’t have any other pictures to show

Hi guys I’m back from the desert and decided to go out to see about some skiing and to see what the snow is doing on my birthday. My partner and I had the objective of skiing the White Worm under Hardscrabble since it’s pretty low angle but on the approach there is a rollover and while I was skinning up to the rollover I popped off a wind slab approximately 50 X 50’ with a 6” crown. The slab itself was only about 4” thick and only slid about 5” down the slope before stopping, and I was able to stop and then turn around and ski off of the slab without it moving any further. The 4” of dry slab was sitting on about 3” of sugary snow that was on a very firm icy bed surface. I did not have any shooting cracks coming from under my skis or whoomphing prior to the break. I knew I had gotten into some slabby snow and the break happened fast, probably only 2 strides past where it was just powder on top of the bed surface. It just goes to show how quickly things can change and turn into a problem. Fortunately the slab didn’t keep sliding and take me for a ride, but based on how quickly the snow went from behaving like snow that is safe to travel on to touchy and irritable, we made the decision to turn around as we would have had to travel through more of the same to get both into and off of the White Worm. I’m glad we did because the wind had been blowing all day and even where we had just come up an hour earlier the snow had started to slab up and I kicked off a couple more much smaller slabs that slid about 5’ down the slope before stopping while we were survival skiing down our bootpack, in snow that was benign on the way up. It changed that fast.

I am asking myself what I would do differently if I found myself in a similar situation in the future, and the answer is I don’t know. I could have taken a different route up through some trees and rock bands, but I didn’t get any negative feedback from the snow until I was in it and it broke, so really I don’t know. Back out off of the wind slab as soon as I noticed it taking on a different feel is also a possibility. I will say that I am glad we made the prudent decision to travel one by one across a slope we had just discussed as being potentially dangerous; it broke well away from where my partner was observing me cross the slope. And to turn around. If you guys have any helpful feedback, I’m all ears, I realize it’s difficult to say since you weren’t there but I take this as a lucky experience to examine what I could do better and to be thankful that it turned out to be a pretty mellow oh shit moment.

Cheers and hope you are all doing well!

From IG message: Northern Bridgers is seeing a lot of avalanche hazard. Deep wind slabs where I was on Hardscrabble (SE aspect and NE). On my skin out I saw two avalanche crowns on the NE side of Pomp Pk. One had a party of two that triggered it and they were starting to descend away from avy terrain. Asked some other skiers up there what they saw and similar findings throughout the area. Dug one pit that showed facets on the ground covered by hard, icy snow with wind loaded snow on top of that.

Out of advisory area but we went into the Absarokas today, typical early season conditions. HS at 8200 ft on N aspects ranging from 10 to 110cm. The October snow is a pencil to knife hardness crust, and in places the new snow has drifted into slabs up to 30cm thick which have bonded decently to the crust, although we did get some to crack. The crust makes an excellent bed surface, and several healthy size 1 dry loose created impressive powder clouds when funneled through steep confined terrain. Precip rates approached S2 at times today, with 3-5cm accumulation at 8k.

Watch the video HERE!