Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center » Public Observation

Observation Date:

December 18, 2022

Submitted:

December 19, 2022

Zone or Region:

Big Pine Creek

Activity:

Skiing/Snowboarding

Location:

North face of Kidd Mtn

We skinned up to Glacier Lodge, then started traversing east up the north face of Kidd Mtn. We saw a couple old slides, including one that ran the length of the main chute off Kidd Mtn from ~11,500ft, and one in a smaller chute at ~9,500 ft. Snow at the surface altered between soft & loose, and varying degrees of wind affected. No shooting cracks or whoompfing.

We dug a bit at ~10,000ft, and found 21cm of old facets buried underneath nearly a full meter of nice looking right-side up snow. The facets collapsed and propagated on the 27th tap.

Good skiing down the chute, with mostly great snow, and occasional but mostly visible crust and wind affected sections.

Did you observe any avalanches?

Yes

Comments:

We saw an old slide on the main chute of Kid Mountain. The crown was between rocks at the head, and it ran pretty much all the way down to Pine Creek. Based on the apparent size of the avalanche, and amount of snow remaining, we thought it might have come down early in the last storm cycle, or else did not slide along the base facets.