Observation: Public
Observation Details
Observation Date:
February 3, 2021Submitted:
February 3, 2021Zone or Region:
West NorthActivity:
Skiing/SnowboardingLocation:
Mt Baker sidecountryObserved Avalanches
Did you observe any avalanches?
YesAvalanche Type:
Soft SlabSize:
Size 3: Could bury and destroy a car, damage a truck, destroy a wood frame house, or break a few treesElevation:
Above treelineAspect:
NComments:
Observed numerous large avalanches off the Shuksan arm with wide propagation. Crowns were evident on most slopes all the way to Shuksan: Football field, lookers left of Safety line, White Salmon Glacier, and NW couloir all had wall-to-wall crowns. These appear to have failed in the last few days.Signs of Unstable Snow
Observations
From the top of Hemispheres, we could observe significant avalanches on Herman as well. Crowns were observed in Stoneman couloir, S face of Herman (above boulderfield extending to the Mazama bowl notch, debris ran full path to the gulch and valley bottom), E face of Herman (perhaps what was in the video posted earlier), and NE facing bowl on Herman. There was a similar crown on Happy Bunny/Video pk SW of Table. These slides were large D2 to maybe D3 (biggest noted on Herman). The depth and propagation of these and slides on Shuksan arm was impressive, so I'd guess they failed on faceted snow near the mid-Jan crust.
Some fairly aggressive lines were ridden in the sidecountry off the arm and Hemis, but we didn't see any skier-triggered avalanches.