Professional Observation

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

I toured up to the Mammoth crest today via the Red Cone ridge. Skies were mostly clear, temperatures were brisk and the winds were strong out of the southwest. I observed some pretty decent flagging off the crest and features like red cone bowl, the steep north-facing chutes off the approach ridge, crystal chute, and Jaws were being actively loaded throughout the day. It is also worth noting that cornice features have been growing. I observed one fairly sizable cornice collapse along the crest and at least one recent avalanche triggered by a cornice collapse.

I poked around quite a bit today and observed lots of shooting cracks on wind-loaded test slopes. the longest of which was about 25 ft. I observed deposits ranging in depth from ~4′ to over 2′ with hand sheers failing 8-20″ deep with moderate force. In addition, I observed several recent natural avalanches, most of which likely ran yesterday or overnight. Most of these appeared to be small (D1-1.5). The largest avalanche observed ran in the main red cone bowl feature the path had been mostly filled back in but some more sizable debris was still visible. I did observe two slides on the north-facing chutes that appeared to be more recent, likely running within the last 12 hrs. One was very small and the other I would classify as D1.5, both appeared to be triggered by a cornice collapse. The larger of the two had a max crown depth of 2-3 ft.

Lower elevations were less concerning today than Mid and upper elevations. While I did observe some signs of wind transport BTL I would say concerning deposition would be isolated to more exposed areas with specific terrain features.  There is still plenty of soft snow available for transport out there. skin tracks averaged boot top to knee-deep throughout my tour today.

Snow Stability