Walking off The Skin Track

Below are a few catalogued observations surrounding the events that led up to a remote triggered D2 on 1-15-18 Mt. Justice Peak in Colorado.

2-3 mm facets (rounding December facets)

3 m snowpack.

2 ft crown

Size D2

Walking off the skin tracks never ceases to teach me a think or two about the snowpack. The snow is still light density, no crust or crunch present until you dig down to the rain crust from last Thursday morning. On top of that rests over a foot of consolidating snow from the recent storm. It blew in wet and warm Thursday around 1:00 pm, followed by a cold front and lighter density snow. It snowed again Friday after a late evening break in the system finishing off with high winds. These winds blew the snow around above tree line and definitely affected areas at tree line.

Since the storm, the snow has been consolidating from wind and now a period of high pressure. Walking up to the Bowling Alley, I witnessed remnants of a, likely, skier triggered D1 avalanche. The slide broke on a shaded convexity in the trees measuring 30 feet wide and slid 40 feet down the slope ending in a terrain trap. The debris was growing surface hoar which makes me think the slide happened 24 hours prior at the earliest.

We continued making our way gradually up through the woods. Veering from the skin track we walked to an ENE facing ledge where a natural had slide has occurred most likely during the storm. Taking a few steps out into virgin snow it only took two big jumps to get a large womph on flat terrain. This made us curious and after finding a safe zone on a flat plateau in a grove of trees it only took two more jumps to remotely trigger three gullies.

The crack propagated 300 feet spanning various terrain features and exposed car sized boulders and fallen trees. The slide ran through the trees. I couldn't see the end of two of the debris piles. The debris I saw ranged from 3 to 6 feet or more deep. The debris was soft (fist hardness). The crown was 4F hardness.

Walking up through the trees and bowling alley glimpses of Anthracite in the distance, I saw crowns in the distance lacing steep rocky ENE faces. They broke from natural wind loading it appeared. You can tell based on the wavy crown emulating loaded areas as well as dips in snow height (windward v. leeward). Below is a video that further explains the events on 1-15-18.