Public Observation

Observation Details

Observations

Toured in the up McGee Creek to check out the weather and snow. There was lots to see. The main story was wind and wind transport. Winds were roaring at all elevations, near the pack station we were almost getting knocked over by a NW wind. Winds were swirling which made it hard to tell what direction the wind was actually blowing. There was a large westerly banner on Nevahbe, and it seemed that winds were out of the SW on Baldwin. In general, SE through N slopes were getting loaded.

We climbed the couloir on McGee Creek Peak to about 9300' where we ran into small spindrift (?) avalanches. They were flowing down like a stream in waves at first and then fairly constantly after 15 minutes or so, and while they couldn't have buried a person they were big enough to knock a skier over. We skinned up on old avalanche debris, and as we climbed we started observing significant loading even down low where we were. We could watch blowing snow form drift pillows on the avy debris. Winds were absolutely ripping. I haven't seen avalanches like that before. Loose dry is what I suppose they were, but to me they indicate significant wind loading. If the wind was depositing snow so quickly that it was sloughing like that, I assume that big slabs are forming up there. That was new to me, and I certainly won't be going up there tomorrow. We turned around when it felt dangerous to go any further, but at least the ski down the avy debris was soft and very fun. Attached is a video of the slides.

On the skin in we also observed multiple small wet point release slides on McGee. These were on E & SE aspects, and I set off a very small wet point release on the moraine above the road to the pack station, around 7800' on an E aspect. Even on the N aspect of the main couloir on McGee Creek Peak we found sun softened snow up to at least 8500', though that was barely softened and only on the surface. Nothing like the uncohesive mashed potatoes in the canyon and below McGee.

Additionally, on the drive home around 4PM we observed major wind loading on Red Mountain by wind out of the West. The looker's left side where the vast majority of the tracks are as well as the main skinners was getting hammered. The smaller gully on the looker's left that has been seeing heavy traffic in the past few days was getting very heavily loaded, even below treeline. I am confident that there will be fresh, reactive wind slabs in that gully tomorrow (4/3).

Triggered Avalanches

Observed Avalanches

Signs of Unstable Snow