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Professional Observation

       

Basic Information

Observation Details

Observation Date:
December 15, 2021
Submitted:
December 15, 2021
Observer:
Josh Feinberg | Key Observer
Zone or Region:
Mammoth Lakes
Location:
Punta Bardini

Signs of Unstable Snow

Recent Avalanches? 
Yes
Cracking? 
Isolated
Collapsing? 
Isolated

Key Points

-Triggered a good size woomph with cracking that extended out 20ft or so when we hoped off our skis to dig a pit at 9750′ on a NNE aspect near the top of the Old Growth on a 31° slope.  Spooky, and made us happy to be in low angle terrain.  ECT test propagated at the new/old snow interface ~115cm below the new snow surface ontop of a 5cm thick layer of 2mm facets.  Propagation Saw test also failed to end with only 16cm of penetration (16/100) on the same layer.

We didn’t experience any other significant settlement / whoomphing which made us think that a shallow spot would be necessary to hit with skis on to potentially trigger a slope.

-Expensive probing led us to believe that no old snow prior to December exists on northerly facing terrain below ~9,200′ in this area (a good ways above the top of the TeleBowls). The storm slab for the most part seems to be bonding well, so felt comfortable skiing a bit steeper terrain below this 9,200′ level where the spooky basal facets weren’t lurking.

-Some isolated cracking of surface wind slabs along the ascent ridge.  Slab ranged from thin and soft to a foot thick and hard, some failing quite cleanly.

-Lots of wind transport observed over high ridges, SW winds.  Sure to be some large sensitive windslabs forming up high.

 

Advanced Information

Weather Summary

Cloud Cover:
Clear

Beautiful day with blue skies and calm winds down low, moderate at lower ridge tops, and observed strong over high ridge tops transporting snow.

 

Avalanche Observations

 #  Date Location Size Type Bed Sfc Depth Trigger Comments Photo
1 Past 24 hours Main Bardini Chute
N 9,800' 		D2.5 3ft N-Natural -Saw old crown about 20ft down from the entrance into the main Bardini Chute that went across whole chute, looked to be ~3ft deep, but was filled in a bit.  Likely occured naturally during the snow loading and blowing yesterday.   None

Snowpack Observations

~2ft of dense snow down low, up to 3.5ft up high.  Plenty of snow to actually ski, but plenty of invisible obstacles just below the surface still too.  Keep your tips up!  Thankfully the snow was somewhat dense, and could keep the tips up fairly easily.

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