23-24

Skiers in the Western Tobacco Roots saw widespread sluffing involving recent storm snow. The skiers triggered one small avalanche that broke 4-6" deep and 30' wide on a wind-loaded slope, D1. Photo: W. Hubbard 

Out in the Western Tobacco Roots today. Recent snow was decently wind affected and storm depths were particularly variable. One thing was common with all new snow deposits: they were bonded very poorly to the widespread underlying crust. In most areas the new snow was not cohesive or deep, so this resulted only in tricky skinning and long running sluffs.

However, where wind or sun had strengthened the slab this surface layer was reactive, with sluffs entraining significant amounts of snow and one small slab that I managed to trigger. I popped this slab underneath a mild, somewhat cross-loaded convexity on a north face near treeline, and it broke around 30 feet wide, 4-6 inches deep, and ran ~ 300 feet (N, 9500', SS- ASu - R1/D1).

The underlying snowpack showed no signs of instability, though while boot packing I did break through the crust in some shallower areas and found some basal facets. The snow surface stayed pretty cool throughout the day above 8.5 kft, and winds were light out of the west.

Skied the Banana Coulior off Ross today. 6-8" of fresh, dry snow has fallen and lies above a bomber crust that was observed on all aspects we traveled on. The weak interface between new, dry snow and the pervasive crust allowed for a large sluff, or dry-loose slide, that began near the top of the Banana Coulior and ran for ~ 500'

From IG message 4/17/24: "Remote trigger up little bear today. Went to the groundish."

From IG message 4/17/24: "Remote trigger up little bear today. Went to the groundish."

From IG message 4/17/24: "Remote trigger up little bear today. Went to the groundish."

From IG message 4/17/24: "Remote trigger up little bear today. Went to the groundish."

From IG message 4/17/24: "Remote trigger up little bear today. Went to the groundish."