Fourth skier on the slope, caught and skied off to the side.
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday’s sunshine was enough to cause the snow surface to become damp, but cool temperatures and some clouds kept the wet avalanche activity to a minimum. We did receive a few reports of wet sluff avalanches, but they were generally small and confined to the surface snow. People were still able to get some dry sluffs on steep slopes, but the new snow was less sensitive than Saturday.
There were two avalanches reported that broke into the old snow. Explosive testing in Mary Ellen Gulch on a 40 degree, east facing slope, at 11,000’ produced an avalanche about 2’ deep and 200’ wide. Also a ski cut on Mill Canyon Peak produced a new snow avalanche about 1’ deep and 30’ wide. This slide traveled about 100’ vertically before triggering a larger avalanche over 3’ deep and 200’ wide. The avalanche occurred on a 40 degree, east facing slope, at 9,500’ and broke down to the ground in places.
Today is a bit of a transitional day. The cloud cover will be increasing during the day as the next storm system moves in, and snow will start to fall in the late afternoon. The wind speeds have increased overnight and they will continue to increase during the day. Although the new snow got some sun yesterday, with wind speeds over 20 mph wind drifts will form rapidly. These fresh wind drifts will be sitting on surface hoar in some places and they could be quite sensitive. The slide on Mill Canyon Peak illustrates that a small slide could trigger a dangerous deep slab avalanche.