Broads fork11/30/2022 Decided today was a good day to go see what happened on the big lines in Broads Fork. As usual I was gambling that there was major avalanche activity on Bonkers and the Diving Board that would allow safe skiing. When we arrived at the overlook it was obvious that the gamble of the long walk in didn’t really pay off today. There was no avalanche activity noted anywhere in the upper drainage, only high winds, slabby looking snow on the E/NE facing and wind scoured slopes on the W facing. We had already made the decision that if there was no obvious avalanches allowing a safe ascent we would not venture into the upper drainage. The combination of intense wind loading on the SLC Twins and slabby snow on the aprons made the decision to ski something lower in the drainage easy. The hazard was even noted below 8000ft on a low angle N facing slope with collapsing and cracking of the entire glade. Dug a quick pit to look at the pack, there was close to 3 feet of snow with a hard frozen layer at the ground then the nasty layer of completely faceted snow about 8 inches in depth, with the new 16 inches of storm snow on top of that. Once the column was isolated there was an easy, clean sheer on top of the facets, leaving the PWL intact. The storm snow in the pit was still light density, not slabbed up or connected but the shear was easy to get. I would assume if you find an area with a connected slab sitting on this weak layer it’s probably going to pop out with lots of energy and be well connected. I’m hoping Fridays storm comes in warm and wet with a bunch of wind, cause at this point in time a big clean out/avalanche cycle is our best bet for future stability.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.If you are enjoying the observations, please consider donating on VenmoMark-White-240 Archives
January 2024
Categories |