Observation: Public
Observation Details
Observation Date:
March 13, 2021Submitted:
March 14, 2021Zone or Region:
East NorthActivity:
Skiing/SnowboardingLocation:
Early Winters Creek headwaters " Disney Land"Observed Avalanches
Did you observe any avalanches?
YesAvalanche Type:
OtherSize:
Size 4: Could destroy a railway car, large truck, several buildings, or a substantial amount of forestElevation:
7566' RidgetopAspect:
NEComments:
About 150' to 200' of cornice features recently broke off this ridge top wall and dislodged snow on the wall below the cornice producing a D4 R3 avalanche that ran to the valley floor. This Avalanche contained large refrigerator size chunks as it funneled its way down the main Gully and over other terrain features on its way to the valley floor. It did not however step down to any deeper layers.The Avalanche ran sometime after this past week's recent low snowfall amounts.
I've been watching this cornice for a while and it was starting to become very overhanging as more snow wind loading occured through February. I stopped skiing the line 2 weeks ago because if that particular cornice feature which was growing to the size of a Metro Bus.
Signs of Unstable Snow
None reported
Observations
Of note there was a more recent low angle skin track that was covered in 7 places as it switched backed its way directly below these cornice features. I'm guessing not much time passed between when that skier group was in there to when the Avalanche occurred.
My old skin track was covered in one location where it crossed the main Gully on its way climber's right to use the protection of terrain features. My old skin track climbed very steep order to avoid as much as possible risk from above.
Unfortunately the Avalanche took out the main gully and that low angle skin track created "speed bumps" in the only ski lines remaining.