Observation Date: 02/08/2015

Route/Location:
Laps on Gash point.

Weather:

Wind:

New Snow:

Avalanche Activity:

Other Comments:
We skied laps at the South bowl area at Gash point on Sunday. We saw some roller ball activity on all but shaded aspects. More notably, we saw several large crowns from natural avalanches releasing on 2/7 on the East Face of Sky Pilot and Teepee Butte in Bear creek. Both large naturals were on wind loaded Northeast facing. The avalanche danger rose quickly above 7,000′, where new snow depths quickly increased from 0″ to about 34″ at 8,500 feet. We dug a pit on a north facing aspect at 7,500 feet and had touchy failures in the new snow (ECTP 15 at 15″, new wind slab), and moderate failures at the ice crust (ECTPN 22). We did not test layers deeper in the snowpack. It was windy enough during the storm that soft slabs had formed pretty much everywhere, so we avoided consequential steep terrain.

Observer: Brian Story