Public Observation #2021-523

Observation Details

Triggered Avalanches

Observed Avalanches

Signs of Unstable Snow

None reported

Observations

Toured out behind 3 creek yurts on the 24th and 25th. It was dumping the whole time. We stuck to pretty conservative terrain, but it was almost too deep unless you were on something moderately steep. The snow seemed right-side up with no obvious weak layers, so mostly dealing with loose sluff or storm slabs. First day we saw about a 1-2 ft crown on a slope that was a classic rollover terrain feature in an otherwise somewhat safe zone, looked to be skier triggered. Second day on a similar feature I triggered a small slide , it was about a 1 ft crown of storm slab. This was somewhat expected as that particular little bump rollover was just steep and unprotected enough that we figured it would probably release the storm snow, but not big enough to do any damage. I cut diagonally onto the slope and out the side as it released. Attached is a pic. You can see the slab just cracking and releasing in the bottom of the pic. Further up the pic in the center is the skin track. (Edit: well, you would have seen the interesting pic if I could get it to actually upload. The "Add Images" button does nothing. Tried in multiple browsers on two different Macs running 2 different OS's. Would be nice if that worked consistently.)

There were no signs of unstable wind slab while skinning, no cracking or collapsing etc.