22-23

From obs. 2/11/23: "...Also of note, as we traversed a corniced ridge later in the day, two of our group members simultaneously came too close to the edge of a cornice and it broke away, but did not fall down the slope. Fortunately, everyone was alright, but it was a close call..." Photo: E. Heiman

Poor test scores in our pit, but deep snow. 
 

HS 190cm

ECTP 22, 190-155cm, Q1 shear (fist to 4F)

ECTP 27, 155-135cm, Q1 shear (4-1F)

Shear 135-115cm, Q1 (1F)

All on 1-2mm facets. Pretty nasty layer cake, we skied less than 30° after digging. Obvious wind effect on the steep bowl, no recent activity but hard wind slabs above 9500’ pretty much everywhere  

Pit location: 9120ft, 44.94353, -111.1315

Our group toured up into Blackmore today with the goal of skiing lines on the E and N faces. We dug a pit on a representative slope near the base of Blackmore. The pit had a depth ranging from 110 to 130 cm and showed large faceted crystals near the ground with faceted crystals present up to 60cm from the surface. We performed a shovel shear test and had a failure 60 cm from the surface, which identified our layer of interest. Our first ECT had scores of ECTN3 in the newer snow and a ECTP19 at the ground. I felt that the propagation at the ground may have been affected by some undercutting from the cord and I wanted to see if we would have propagation on the layer down 60 cm so we performed another ECT directly behind the first. This test scored ECTP29 at the layer down 60 cm, which was expected. We decided to take a slightly more conservative approach to our line choice for the remainder of the day based on these results. 
 

Also of note, as we traversed a corniced ridge later in the day, two of our group members simultaneously came too close to the edge of a cornice and it broke away, but did not fall down the slope. Fortunately, everyone was alright, but it was a close call and we will definitely be more mindful next time. We believe the cornice was made more sensitive by the warm weather over the past few days. 

We rode up Denny Creek to Lionhead Ridge. After that, we rode back towards Watkins and Targhee creeks. We dug a pit on a north facing aspect at 9000’. We found 5.5’ (170 cm) of snow. We had an ECTN27 on a layer of rounding facets ~1 foot below the surface. We had this same result on an E facing aspect. We saw some old avalanche activity under Lionhead Ridge, but there were no signs of recent avalanches.

Poor snowpack structure present everywhere with facets to the ground. Some big beautiful depth hoar in pockets around the new growth down lower. I dug multiple hasty pits on the way up yielding no propagation on my ECT's until I reached 8,800' where the leeward (NW) side of the ridge had previous wind loading. There was an old wind slab ~1f+ and 70cm thick sitting on a 4f 5cm thick layer of 1mm grains of faceted snow. It failed at ECTP24 with a clean shear. I did not dig deeper than this here. Winds were light with moderate gusts, few clouds. Solars were warming but no recent activity was observed. Beautiful day for shady low angle skiing. Pictured below are crystals from the weak layer on the ECTP24 down70 @8800 NW on 30° slope. 

While on a tour today up Wheeler gulch, we noticed a few old crowns that released before the most recent snow, hard to say if they were natural or not. We also observed a most likely remote triggered small wind slab (not our tracks next to it). Solar aspects were hot. Top of snowpack was relatively stable in our 4 foot pit, some collapse but no propagation (E aspect, 8400 feet). 

Our group did a big loop - Daisy- wolverine- goose - sheep -lulu. Saw minimal wind transport except on high points ( see photo). After looking all day saw an R1D2 slide (see 2nd photo) on a ENE slope above 10,000' south of Lulu pass, unknown trigger, though the whole area around the slide had cornice growth. We observed a lot of tracks highmarking into windloaded alpine slopes but saw no rider triggered avalanches.