23-24
More Avalanches
Took three laps at Trapper Ridge today. 5 avalanches were observed on the s-w slope well below the ridge line on Sage Peak. Whumpfing occurred on the established skin track on our second and third runs of the day. The whumpfs were confined to low elevation e-ne slopes and had less energy then many of whumpfs this season (still impressive though). We observed three avlanches on the e-ne slopes with crowns roughly 2-3 feet deep. One of the three avalanches was quite old. The others appeared to have occurred recently. Another large collapse with multiple crack was observed on an east facing slope. The collapse seems to have been incredibly close to sliding as the initial ‘crown’ was pulled away from the snow above it but did not have enough energy to I’ve more than a foot or two down slope. Must have been a degree or two from sliding??? This collapse was found around all three e-ne avalanches.
Sheep creek
We were a group of 12 riders skiing the ghost trees up Sheep. We had a safe crossing of the bottom of the large avy slope (south west side of Miller) before skinning up the ghost slope.
There was 3 other parties, one group of 8, one of 2, and one of 3-4. A few whomps were heard/felt skiing without any propagation or slides on the slope we skied. We did see a few point release slides high up on Miller Ridge later in the afternoon, after the sun had been baking that slope all day.
The skiing in the Ghost trees was great! Even with all the people.
we did talk to the group of 3/4. Earlier in the day, they had skinned further up the drainage and climbed up a west facing rib of Miller proper. On the first steeper slope while skinning up they experienced large snow settling and bailed.
we could see their tracks, and there actually was a different group that had climbed even higher and skied. We didn’t see any slide activity on the slope they skied.
On our skin out at 4:30 or so, we could feel the southwest facing snow was definitely sun affected from the solar bake.
Natural activity up buck ridge
Lots of natural activity up buck ridge. The one photoed looked like it popped off this morning. Most activity we saw seemed to be on northern facing aspects
Slide above the top of sunlight basinoff main Taylor fork trail
North facing slope partially treelined, not heavily windloaded. Rider triggered, Ran 100yards downhill with large debris through trees, broke 2-3' deep at the crown sliding on near earth facets. 1 rider partially caught, airbag deployed, self-extracted with no injuries.
From email: "We noticed a multitude of slides on north- and east-facing slopes, many of which seemed to have been from the prior weekend. I snapped a picture of one on the opposite side of the drainage that was a couple of feet deep. Adjacent to it was some more debris."
Rider Triggered Avalanche Wapiti Creek
From obs: "We observed another, probably rider triggered avalanche in Wapiti Creek that broke on old snow near the ground ~2 feet deep and ~60ft across."
Natural Avalanches in Taylor Fork
From Obs on 02/17/2024: "We observed large natural avalanches from afar on the west side of Snowslide Mountain, and the east aspect of a peak south of Woodward Mountain. We observed these from a few miles away and were probably several feet deep and a few hundred feet wide."
These avalanches likely happened during or near the end of a large storm that started on 02/14/2024.
Avalanche Sheep Mountain
From email: "Was in round lake was visiting with a guy in the warm up shack. He said he caused a decent size avalanche on the sheep mountain side.
It was roughly 100 feet wide, he was hit by the avalanche but didn’t get buried."
Mixed signals
Saw small old wet slab slides on exposed south facing slopes, skied low angle ENE slopes, dug a pit and the snow was very stable