Bloody Mtn

Posted April 24th, 2010 by joshf

Location

United States
37° 33' 37.8" N, 118° 54' 32.9364" W
Date and time of observation: 
April 24, 2010 - 12:00pm
Region: 
Mammoth Area
Observation Type: 
Snowpack
Avalanche
Route: 

From Sherwin Creek Rd, up North Couloir of Bloody, and back down.

Red Flags: 
Recent avalanche activity
Rapid warming
Obvious avalanche path
Weather Observations
More detailed information about the weather: 

Sunny and warm, gusty light winds... moderate gusts at higher elvations (>12000').

Snowpack & Snowpit Observations
Information about the snowpack/snowpit: 

Mostly winter snow in north couloir.  Patchy areas of wind crusts of varying thickness interspersed amoung good wintery boot top pow.  Even areas with wind crust weren't skiier suportable and was good skiing.  Dug one test pit mid way up north couloir in area of slaby wind crust.  ~8cm of 1 finger hardness wind slab above ~30cm of fist hard snow ontop of 1 finger hard snow down to bottom of pit (~1 meter).  Over 3m deep snow pack.  CT1Q2 : this surface wind slab sliding on soft underlying snow.  ECT - no propogation.

Avalanche Observations
Avalanche Type: 
Wet
Trigger type: 
Natural
Aspect: 
West
More detailed information about the avalanche: 

West facing slide next to Bloody couloir, likely occured yesterday (4/23).  Started as a shallow point release, entrained only new surface snow and ran on old melt freeze crust.  Reached over 150 wide, ran about 1000', areas of debris over 6 feet deep.  Started at 12000'.  See photos.

Avalanche/Snowpack Photos: 
Comments: 

North facing sheltered slopes overall stable.  Sun affected slopes (NE-E-S-W-NW) demonstrating surface snow instabilities dependent on time of day and radiation/wind.  Great wintery snow in north couloir.   

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