will see drew's semi trailer and raise him a dozen boxcars. after our tour today (get to that later) we drove over the summit at 2:30 and found one of the biggest slides i have seen on wedding ring ridge. this could not be over a day old, possibly from today. we took a look around and could see no activity in the vicinity, the place was deserted, and over on the kiting side of the ridge, a few kiters and one truck with a small trailer was parked, but every one on that side was obilvious to any accident. cannot say if this was a natural or human caused today or possibly yesterday. so many high marks in the area, some covered by debris, could not determine. bad feeling not knowing what had occurred, but could not justify calling out the calvary without more information. this was a bonecrusher that ran down through small aspens on flatter terrain.
a section of cornice had calved off the ridge, 400'+ long and brought out other hard slabs that i could see had stepped down another layer into storm snow from two weeks ago on lookers left and right. fridge sided chunks apparent down in low angle terrain in aspens. (see pic). no lack of testing by snowmobile existed everywhere else with no other activity seen. snow has settled out tremendously and gained very good strength elsewhere. certainly raised my hackles up a full notch for east facing large cornice terrain, which is prevalent on summit ridges
we went looking for sheltered north facing and ended up in electric bowl. impressive wind damage everywhere, significant winds from west reported on fri and sat with sastrugi the size of moguls on south through nw aspects. north through ne sheltered snow is gaining strength well and did not bother digging down beneath the top couple of layers. 4-5 mm surface hoar growing in sheltered areas made for loud powder turns and would sluff in steeper terrain. before the ride over the summit, cornice kicks resulting in various kitchen appliance sized chunks up to vw bug sized pieces but not triggering anything on slopes below. that feeling changed when we saw wedding ring ridge. slope angles at 35 or so produced no settling, cracking, or sign of instability (see pit profile).
snow still punchy and inverted especially where wind damaged (which is everywhere). in sheltered areas has settled out, but punchy enough to not qualify as hero snow, but fun skiing. penetrating 6"-8" in turns, snow was creamy until you changed aspects other than n or ne. nw had survivor wind pack, east and south 1" breakable sun crust underneath surface hoar. furn speigel (sp?) widespread on southern aspects. mostly sunny with wsw winds at 15-20 mph on summit ridges and getting down into all but the most protected terrain. east facing uptrack filled up with fractured surface hoar making it slick.
deep snow not a limiting factor and access to all terrain much easier now, would expect snowmobiles getting into all sorts of areas, ie, they had already accessed skiers right side of big meadow climbing straight up.
a section of cornice had calved off the ridge, 400'+ long and brought out other hard slabs that i could see had stepped down another layer into storm snow from two weeks ago on lookers left and right. fridge sided chunks apparent down in low angle terrain in aspens. (see pic). no lack of testing by snowmobile existed everywhere else with no other activity seen. snow has settled out tremendously and gained very good strength elsewhere. certainly raised my hackles up a full notch for east facing large cornice terrain, which is prevalent on summit ridges
we went looking for sheltered north facing and ended up in electric bowl. impressive wind damage everywhere, significant winds from west reported on fri and sat with sastrugi the size of moguls on south through nw aspects. north through ne sheltered snow is gaining strength well and did not bother digging down beneath the top couple of layers. 4-5 mm surface hoar growing in sheltered areas made for loud powder turns and would sluff in steeper terrain. before the ride over the summit, cornice kicks resulting in various kitchen appliance sized chunks up to vw bug sized pieces but not triggering anything on slopes below. that feeling changed when we saw wedding ring ridge. slope angles at 35 or so produced no settling, cracking, or sign of instability (see pit profile).
snow still punchy and inverted especially where wind damaged (which is everywhere). in sheltered areas has settled out, but punchy enough to not qualify as hero snow, but fun skiing. penetrating 6"-8" in turns, snow was creamy until you changed aspects other than n or ne. nw had survivor wind pack, east and south 1" breakable sun crust underneath surface hoar. furn speigel (sp?) widespread on southern aspects. mostly sunny with wsw winds at 15-20 mph on summit ridges and getting down into all but the most protected terrain. east facing uptrack filled up with fractured surface hoar making it slick.
deep snow not a limiting factor and access to all terrain much easier now, would expect snowmobiles getting into all sorts of areas, ie, they had already accessed skiers right side of big meadow climbing straight up.
nice little snowcave built at bottom of uptrack, someone has been having alot of fun
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