Broads Fork12/12/2023 Went up Broads Fork for a look around. Not much snow at the trail head at 6000ft but close to 3 feet at 9000ft. We went up hoping some of the big slopes like the Diving Board and Bonkers had avalanched during the big cycle last week and would allow safe passage. Luckily both slopes had evidence of having under went large avalanches. I doubt we would have ascended if they hadn’t already slid. We went to the Diving Board because we saw a large avalanche right in the middle where it usually slides. Once we got to the base of the slope we realized an older slide had occurred earlier and avalanched out the whole slope. Constantly probing on the way up, it became apparent that the whole slope had been impacted by multiple large slides from off of the Twins and the upper Blue Ice. We put all this information together and decided there was not much hazard above us, which is a real thing in Broads, and that the old faceted snow had been mostly destroyed by the large avalanches. I always put a lot of thought into where I’m going and there is a method to the madness.
We could definitely use some more snow. Still lots of rocks and bushes in the lower canyon drainages, and the exit requires walking out, at least for us it did. In my opinion, the next thing we’re going to have to deal with is faceting of the surface snow if we have an extended dry spell. This includes faceting of the whole snowpack in places where the pack is not deep.
3 Comments
Michael T Thomas
12/12/2023 11:01:26 pm
Thanks a ton for all the well written shared intel! You’re the man! Really appreciate it ✅👍💪🔥❄️
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Jake
12/13/2023 10:24:46 am
Thanks for the write up. Great to hear about your thought process.
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