South Monitor and Raymond11/4/2022 This ob is from the last two days, Yesterday was in S Monitor and USA Bowl, and today on the SE face of Mt Raymond. Yesterday was cloudy and windy with light snowfall. Headed over to S Monitor Bowl via USA bowl, the wind was cranking on the ridgeline from the N-NE forming cornices in the reverse direction than they are usually formed in. The visibility was poor only providing a view of the top of the slope. What we could see lead us to decide to skip it. Never been a fan of diving into a steep bowl with wind affect and zero visibility. USA Bowl was not winded and had about a foot of light density snow from the storm. Found out today from some friends that it was windjacked top to bottom.
Today we headed up Butler Fork to Mt Raymond. Not much snow at the trailhead but there was a solid 2 feet on the SE face of Raymond. The snow under the new 8 inches of light density was a slick and supportable crust which kept you off the rocks and dirt for the most part. There was also surface hoar forming in the wind protected areas. If this storm plays out like they say, warm, windy and with dense snow I think we might have some avalanches on all aspects. Any slope with a slick crust underlying it and with light density on top is a good set up for poor bonding, meaning the thicker slab on top can collapse on the light density layer underneath then step down to the old slick crust. These would most likely be slopes on the S end of the compass or at lower elevations. On the N end of the compass there is weak light density snow that might not hold the weight of a dense slab as well. Will just have to wait and see what the weather does, but I’ll probably dial it way back for a bit if the weather does play out.
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