Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Late afternoon tour of the Southback area as my partner and I headed towards the saddle/ridge lookers left of Three Way Peak (#5 - Boundary Basin in the Crystal Backcountry Book). This was an objective from earlier in the summer on a day that we backed out due to wet loose activity, so it has been on mind for a while now. With the prior avy forecast from Dallas G. looking promising, we decided to check it out.

The FF Forest itself was absent of slide activity - not even smaller sloughs or point releases The cold weather seems to have preserved the snow pack nicely. It was very windy at the ridge and also the knoll directly below Three Way itself. As such, we did notice wind texturing on the snow surface throughout the basin, but we did not see or activate any wind loaded pockets. The snow itself was very sugary/faceted and did not consolidate at all. This made gaining the last pitch to the ridge quite difficult.

The skiing was incredible, but I would be weary to see how the incoming snow Thur 12/8 and Fri 12/9 affect this deep snowpack.