Debris pile from a recent avalanche on the SE Couloir of Emigrant Peak. The avalanche appears to have occurred within the last few days and was likely triggered by a cornice fall. Photo: H. Darby
Ski for scale next to debris from a recent avalanche on the SE Couloir of Emigrant Peak. The avalanche appears to have occurred within the last few days and was likely triggered by a cornice fall. Photo: H. Darby
I toured out to Alex Lowe Peak today, and thought I’d share my observations. The wind was blowing fairly hard today, but was not transporting a great deal of snow anymore. I did not observe any natural activity, collapsing, or cracking, but there are some things to keep an eye on. A pit on an east aspect at 9500’ was 145cm deep, and an ECT failed at 12 on the new/old interface 15-20cm down. It would not propagate, and after 30 hits I tipped over the meter or so of column without it coming apart. The surface it bonded to is variable, though, so I would hesitate to make generalizations off of a single pit.
Another observation worth noting is that standing in my snow pit, I sank pretty much to the ground in the weak, faceted, lower portion of the snowpack. I experienced this again stepping off my skis at 8200’ along south cottonwood creek, when I promptly sank to my thighs. I imagine some areas will react poorly to a substantial load, but that doesn’t seem to be in the forecast.
GNFAC,
I was up on the far south side of Bacon Rind today, skiing was great. Overcast clouds, temps warmed up throughout the day, light snowfall in the morning and a windy drive home at the end of the day. I dug a snowpit on an east facing slop around 8600'. Nothing ya'll don't know already- we found two surface hoar layers in the top part of the snowpack with an NSF layer in between, it doesn't seem to have enough of a slab on top to do anything yet. I attached a copy of the snowpit.
Hopefully it snows soon!
Spencer
From obs. 2/4/22: "...Also, we had one significant collapse today on a mid elevation east aspect. A slope with just a touch of wind deposit. (first collapse I've had in months!) The snow that collapsed appeared to be about 30-40' wide. And a hasty pit showed the layer of concern to be buried SH...."
From obs (2/4/22): "…the last 2 days was finding buried surface hoar in many locations, up to 10'000'..... And we also observed a fresh avalanche yesterday on the NW aspect of Meridian Peak. I couldn't discern a crown, due to our vantage point and a low cloud, but the debris pile looked relatively deep, and 12-48 hours fresh. Also, we had one significant collapse today on a mid elevation east aspect. A slope with just a touch of wind deposit.
Attempted to ski the SE Couloir on Emigrant Peak today. As we approached, we noticed recent avalanche debris in the runout zone of the line. We approached carefully and it looked to be somewhat recent in the last few days. Not buried by much recent snow but also did not look fresh as of that day. I am guessing it was triggered by a collapsed cornice but with poor visibility it was challenging to see any sort of crown or broken cornice above us. We did not ski the couloir. I dug a pit in the open east facing bowl below at 9200 ft. The snowpack was between 55-75cm deep. In this location, the bottom 30cm of the snowpack were very large, well-developed facets with some depth hoar. I got ECTN 14 about 45cm up and ECTX on the facet/midpack interface (30cm up).
Pit dug near Unnamed Creek in the Lamar Valley on a West face. 6500 ft. 54cm of unconsolidated facets with 8+ cm depth hore at the surface over ice. ECT failure at 23. No propagation.
We were planning on skiing ainger basin area. Snow seemed safe while we were skinning, but we dug 3 pits because the wind was so strong. got semi-unstable results each time, ect 12 to 18 with clean propagation around 4 to 9 inches down, depending on the slope.
anyway , just submitting because I was surprised.
