1/3/2012 AVALANCHE DANGER HIGH

Made it back up to the basin after 4 days of high winds 120 MPH reported in Frisco.  The first thing we saw was a big debris pile at the base of a chute.  The crown was 300 feet long and 6inches to 3 feet deep. You could see two different slab layers on the top of the crown.  The slide traveled the entire face about 700 feet.  The debris pile was made of big chunks of slab and rock hard.

We chose a safe ridge to hike up then set up a belle above a undisturbed chute.  We dug two pits along the convex roller just above the face.  the first 3" was new wind loaded snow that you could barely cut with a shovel.  Below that was another 3" shelf of similar snow quality.  The two layers were not bonded well.  Now 6 feet deep we found 2 feet of sugar snow on the ground. SKETCHY...

We cut a small piece of cornice (no bigger than 100 pounds) and sent it down the chute.  200 feet down the chute we herd the snow settle and the whole thing went for a ride all the way to the base 700 feet away. 100 foot crown 6inches to 2 feet deep.  Looking at the crown you could see the same layers we saw in our pit analysis and could see where they all failed.

2 CHUTES DOWN MANY MORE NEED TO GO.......

I will be back up this weekend Jan. 7 and 8 to start work on the rest of the area. We have 2 confirmed snowmobiles going and could use more help either snowmobiles or man power.  Come up.......