Observation: Public
Observation Details
Name:
Matt CrislerObservation Date:
January 23, 2021Submitted:
January 23, 2021Zone or Region:
West SouthActivity:
Skiing/SnowboardingLocation:
Paradise - Mazama Ridge, Paradise Glacier, Cowlitz RocksObserved Avalanches
Did you observe any avalanches?
YesAvalanche Type:
Wet LooseSize:
Size 1: Relatively harmless to peopleElevation:
Aspect:
SComments:
Pretty widespread wet loose avalanches in the Paradise area running fairly far and consistently entraining all of the snow down to the rain crust. A few even appeared to have small slab-like pockets at the start zones instead of point releases. Many of these were observed early morning and likely occurred 1/22.Photo:
Signs of Unstable Snow
None reported
Observations
Traveled from 5400-7800' in the Paradise Glacier area. Most solar below 7000' had a breakable crust atop the ~10 cm of new snow while areas protected from the sun held soft, likely faceted snow. Below ~6000' surface hoar was widespread in the morning with some reaching ~1cm. The recent snow generally did not appear well bonded to the rain crust presenting some challenging skinning on slopes too steep to travel directly up the fall line and occasional very small loose dry avalanches triggered by ski turns even on moderate slope angles.
Ski conditions were surprisingly good on relatively low angle slopes - especially on shaded slopes from 6000-7000'.
Media
