Observation: Public
Observation Details
Name:
Enji CooperObservation Date:
November 21, 2021Submitted:
November 21, 2021Zone or Region:
East CentralActivity:
XC Skiing/SnowshoeingLocation:
Red Mountain (Salmon la Sac)Triggered Avalanches
Did you trigger any avalanches?
YesWas it intentional?
NoAvalanche Type:
Dry Loose (Sluff)Size:
Size 1: Relatively harmless to peopleElevation:
5.5k'Aspect:
EComments:
Triggered isolated sluffing when going down steep slopes (40°+). This wasn't isolated to the E aspect throughout the day: it dealt more with sun exposure or lack thereof.Observed Avalanches
Did you observe any avalanches?
YesAvalanche Type:
Wet LooseSize:
Size 1: Relatively harmless to peopleElevation:
5.4k'+Aspect:
EComments:
Triggered a lot of pebble to baseball sized rollerballs when traversing from Red Mountain to the old lookout site. The aspect wasn't important -- the sun exposure was the key.Signs of Unstable Snow
Observations
A lot of the snowpack had either consolidated down low thanks to tree bombs, melt from the trees, etc; much of the rain shadows around trees well below treeline, e.g. 3.5k' were nice and consolidated.
Above 4k' though, it was a mix of conditions. There was a fair amount of consolidated wet loose snow, but it wanted to slide whenever force was applied on it with our snowshoes. Furthermore, in the shaded sections we ran into dry sluff over rain crust, which made for a wonderful medium to descend over 35°+ slopes without crampons.
A lot of snow was balling up under our microspikes throughout the day when out in the sun. The snow was very wet and heavy.
Down low in the morning, though, I noticed that the humidity had been sucked out of the top layers by the cold cloudless nights, so it will be interesting to see whether or not this instability gets buried over time.
Media
