Professional Observation

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Lake Mary Road approaching Twin Lakes was an intense ground blizzard this morning around 9:00, so re-routed to Mill City to access Panorama Dome to assess wind slab development due to increasing SW winds.

Wind transport off of the Sherwin ridgeline was intense, obscuring visibility of starting zones from Mammoth Rock Bowl to The Perch.

Spotted a natural, D 1.5-2 windslab on the N, NE aspect of Panorama Dome from near the trailhead. This wrapped the terrain feature significantly. Careful approach to near the slide via the treed east shoulder of the feature revealed the crown was upwards of 2′ and had filled back in in some places due to blowing snow. Large, hard slab like debris chunks were up against the wall of trees that is a short distance below. We experienced several collapses on low angle terrain in the lee of small tree islands climbing this east shoulder.

We also observed a couple of natural slides in the Sherwins in the vicinity of Mammoth Rock and the steep, rocky egress from the Hose area. D 1 to D2. A crown was clearly visible beneath Mammoth Rock for one of these slides.

There was debris at the base of the Main Avy Path as well. Blowing snow obscured clear visibility of the area to clearly tell the scope of the slide, but to make it this far it was likely very large. We could not see the starting zones of the Main Avy path from our view point on the cliff bands above the bluffs. Hopefully another better observation of this comes in to provide some clarity.

Snow Stability

Key Points

The mountains were screaming at us today. Winds were strong to extreme in exposed areas. We found deep travel, often slabby with difficult trail breaking. Low angle slopes were difficult to ride thanks to deep snow, and sometimes that slabby upside down feeling.