Bowman, Toots, and Yellowjacket1/6/2024
Today travel was up the Bowman trail in Millcreek, Toots to Boots into Alexander Basin, then on to Yellow Jacket. Not a whole lot to say without sounding like a broken record but things are about to get interesting. The new snow was basically fluff. There was about 8 to 10 inches of new light density snow, with zero wind in the terrain covered. No slab meant we could ski whatever we wanted but with one caveat, Watch Your Sluff! The sluffs were running fast, and gouging down to the dirt in some places leaving large debris piles. We didn’t realize the power of the sluffs until our first run in Toots. My partner skied first and I had to yell to alert him of a large sluff chasing him down the center punch. He let it go by and the size and power was impressive. Once we discovered that sluffs were the main hazard we proceeded to use ski cuts to mitigate them. This is some of the weakest snow I’ve ever seen in the wasatch, and I’ve been around a while. Add some more snow and wind and we have a serious problem. Today you could get away with most things, but if the weather forecast comes through all bets are off and it’s time to watch your ass in all avalanche terrain and runout zones.
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January 2024
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