Red Cone Bowl

Posted April 20th, 2010 by joshf

Location

United States
37° 35' 43.4256" N, 119° 1' 36.2532" W
Date and time of observation: 
April 20, 2010 - 5:45pm
Region: 
Mammoth Area
Observation Type: 
Snowpack
Avalanche
Route: 

From end of Old Mammoth Rd up to Tamarack x-country trails to Lake George and up Ridge and slopes to top of North face of Red Cone Bowl, and back down the same way.

Red Flags: 
Recent loading by new snow, wind, or rain
Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
Yes
Wind Speed: 
Moderate
Wind Direction: 
Southwest
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Air temperature trend: 
Cooling
Cloud Cover: 
0.75
Precipitation: 
Snow
Accumulation rate: 
Less than 1 in. per hour
More detailed information about the weather: 

After 3pm today the snow intensity diminished greatly, and the winds picked up even more for a brief time and then calmed to moderate gusts by 5:30pm.  Before 3, snow intensity was fairly heavy and winds were strong out of the SW. 

Snowpack & Snowpit Observations
Information about the snowpack/snowpit: 

8-18 inches of new snow in the lakes basin/red cone area depending on where you looked in terms of how the wind was moving it.  1.5ft drifts over the Tamarack x-country trails at relatively low elevations (below 9000'.)  Winds were blowing strong at all elevations, luckily by the time I was ontop of Red Cone bowl after 5pm they had calmed a good bit from earlier in the day (only moderate gusts).  Winds predominated out of the SW, as was evident by the top 20' or so of the west facing slope of Red Cone bowl being stripped to the old firm snow surface.  The North facing slopes had definite wind loading.  The loading accumulated a little further down from the top of the ridge than usual due to the strong winds except where the top of the slope below the ridge was very steep (>55 degrees) in which case the load was just below the ridge top, and up to 2 feet deep.  Ski cuts on the upper portion of this north slope produced small 3" crown results where the slope was not as steep coming off the ridge and upper snow load was not as deep (3").  The rest of the slope which had significantly deeper snow deposited did not react to a ski cut across the entire top.   On the skin up ~9700' 2 very small natural slab releases were observed mid-slope on steep east facing slopes ... crowns were being filled in, but they appeared to be about 8-10", and likely slid on the old snow surface.  Very soft slabs, running about 50' to terrain trap with relatively shallow deposition.  Other east and north facing convex rolls along the ridge skinning up were also wind loaded, but ski cuts produced no results.       

Comments: 

Medium density snow, skied great, but did not ski down bowl today beyond upper ski cut.  Would be very suspect of steep convex areas of higher elevation slopes, and even lower elevation exposed slopes as winds were strong everywhere. 

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