BCR – I’m confused. Shouldn’t lack of job mean more snowboarding?

😥 Sorry to hear that bcr – it’s rough out there right now. Well enjoy some stoke from Sunday…

Happy snow day everyone!

A couple pics from this week. Snow quality is amazing right now. Saw one natural over on Red Lake Peak earlier this week and noticed plenty of wind slab on ridges out that way.

Stevens

Becker

@bcrider wrote:

Sadly the wife has pulled my bc pass due to lack of a job.

WTF, you must then be the only guy in the world that gets more days on the snow WITH A JOB. :scratch:

BTW, nice pics Storn.

Sweet! Glad you got some good turns on Donner. Tallac was sick today. Just a couple minutes to post a few pics before we leave to drive 12 hours to scrubfest… woohoo! Liketoride finally got to ride The Cross. Side entrace (direct and elevator weren’t quite in), but super fun and good snow! Seeing as how I haven’t been on a snowboard since Dec 31, I’d say this was worth waiting for. 🙂

Thanks to SF for waiting for us (me) to get ready to drop, and getting some sweet pics.

Just noticed that latest avy conditions posted with some recent slide activity… That late January rain crust is definitely still hanging around in some places causing some good sized slides with minimal effort at the mid elevations. Check the conditions and pick your lines wisely, especially with another 2-4ft of heavier snow falling over the next couple days…

Hmm.. Guess the images doesn’t like being linked… See them all below in the trip report…

TR with the avy info…
http://surfpowdaheatchowdah.blogspot.com/

Right on jimw, nice to se you back! 🙂

Thanks for the post dave, looks like you guys scored! 8)

PJ, looks like you guys did well too. Is that a new Switch pack on Nattie? :thumbsup:

@dishwasher-dave wrote:

Conditions are amazing right now. Blue bird, low avi danger, powder days are a special thing.

Speaking of avi danger…

There was a huge crown on Baldy next to Ralston. Since the debris was mostly covered by snow, I’m guessing it slid Mon or Tues, when Avi Danger was High. From a distance parts of that crown looked close to head high.

@NoKnees wrote:

Just noticed that latest avy conditions posted with some recent slide activity… That late January rain crust is definitely still hanging around in some places causing some good sized slides with minimal effort at the mid elevations. Check the conditions and pick your lines wisely, especially with another 2-4ft of heavier snow falling over the next couple days…

Just wanted to comment on this. That rain crust does seem to hanging in there, causing some atypical instability for the Sierra snowpack. I’m sure all the CA folks have heard about the unfortunate avy fatality last weekend on Maggies. When I heard about that, it got me thinking about our tour on Tallac last week Thurs (2/19). Were we being safe?

We had a big storm cycle that had ended on Tuesday. Wednesday was fairly nice weather-wise, with no new snow. The avy report that day was rated at Considerable. The next day was bluebird, and the avy report had changed to Low. We figured that made sense, because the snowpack had had the previous day to consolidate. On our skin up, we saw no evidence of instability on the snow that we were skinning on. The “pole test” on the way up didn’t show any obvious layers. No collapsing or shooting cracks. It seemed pretty bomber. Near the top, we looked across the way and saw debris from a natural slide that looked to be at least a day old.

This was an E aspect, on a rollover over rocky terrain (similar to what Dave posted). We figured that slid during the storm. I think I might have gotten complacent because of the low avy report and lack of instability clues on the way up. We didn’t dig a pit. In retrospect, I think we should have. However, if the unstable layer is that 3-8 feet down, we might not have even dug far enough to get to the layer. Also, my understanding is that pit stability tests are really only valid to about 5 feet.

The avy report for Friday was also Low. Both this report and the previous day’s report did mention the weak rain crust layer, but said that it would likely take a very large trigger to get something to slide on that layer.

Then in the Saturday avy report, they noted that previous thinking about this layer being difficult to trigger a slide on was incorrect. A couple excerpts:

Previous thinking that only very large triggers were sufficient to cause human triggered avalanches was shattered yesterday. Two avalanches were triggered yesterday by the weight of a single person on a slope. A third avalanche was reported to have occurred secondary to another large human triggered cornice collapse. Each avalanche was large enough to bury a person.

Recent observations from around the forecast area indicate that the storm snow from February 6 – 17 has gained considerable strength. This has moved the relatively weakest layer within the snowpack down to the base of the storm snow where a layer of faceted snow crystals sits on top of the January 22-23 rain crust. This is the source of the continuing deep slab instability with four human triggered avalanches with crowns 3 to 6 feet reported in the past two days.

Today, despite the plethora of ski, snowboard, and snowmobile tracks that are visible on steep northerly aspects throughout the forecast area, human triggered avalanches with crowns 3 to 7 feet deep remain possible. Deep slab avalanches are notoriously hard to forecast for on both a regional scale and on an individual slope scale. Individuals should exercise great caution, gathering detailed information before choosing to travel on steep N-NE aspects in previously wind loaded or complex terrain.

So this made me realize that maybe I put a little too much faith in the avy report. Conditions during the time we were out seemed to actually be “generally low, but in some cases quite high with the potential to trigger a really large slide on a layer that may be hard to find”. Scary stuff.

Just some food for thought. Be careful out there.

Really good thoughts Jim. I also think the last couple of weeks in Tahoe have been really interesting and educational from a snow geek perspective. The Sat 2/21 SAC Advisory clearly backstepped a bit in terms of their earlier confidence. I believe this was b/c they received multiple observations of several skier triggered slides.

I wouldn’t sweat too much not digging a pit on that Tallac climb. I would guess you would not have seen any startling results or shocking shear qualities that would have changed your mind. And ultimately you chose a line that worked for your party.

Deep slab instability (what that late Jan facet/crust layer has become for us) is super challenging b/c the deeper it gets buried the less likely it is to be triggered, but the bigger it could potentially go if it is triggered. It’s a scary paradox for us.

Definitely a good time to practice good terrain choices and decision making.

To further comment on Jim’s observations…

In addition to the crown Jim photographed, there was another in the same area at the same elevation (maybe 8k or so?) and the same aspect just a little to the North. However, looking out across desolation, we didn’t see any crowns at the higher elevations where you can often see some real monsters. I think that up at the top of Mt. Tallac we were safely above the crust/facet rain layer and so digging up high wouldn’t have found much. The danger probably didn’t start untill 1500 below the summit or so, and that’s a kinda scary concept to start out safe and then ride right through a danger zone. In fact, our exit chute lower down the mountain had already slid and was pretty crap riding.

mtnman – never let someone scoff you out of digging a pit. Tell ’em you’re a geek and you just want to see what’s down there & it’ll just take a sec or two.