High and unusual avy conditions

[ReTodd]

Have been up riding on Baker the last 3 days. Sunday was light and fluffy..... couple of feet on top of the ice. Monday was deeper and light but with drifts 4-5' deep and some wind crust here and there. Today it warmed up a bit and the North winds have blown a LOT of snow over the mountain and the West facing slopes are loaded as well as the East facing slopes. Saw a lot of deep slab movement even though we were not on steep hills today. Got stuck going down hill in drifts that were seriously deep.

Another foot or two forecasted for the next few days with warmer temps.

Then the sun is supposed to show up this weekend but with much warmer temps and therefore heavier snow all piled on top of very light snow on top of ice!!!!

Wouldn't be surprised to see the lookout slide over the horse barn again.

Be aware and be safe.

Rt

 

[_AJ_]

Thanks RT!

Cheers!

 

[beans]

I was thinking of posting myself. Todd beat me to it.

Riding in the central Cascades this morning and it was deep with windloading/drifts. The temps were rising and the snow was heavy and wet. I did break off a couple slabs in low angle terrain. If the weekend forecast holds true it sounds like we will not see any cool temps in the next few days....then an inversion.

Not a good recipe for snow stability.

 

[m7john]

Good post. We went to stampede today to just stay away from the slides and thought if they had that much snow it would be fun enen there. Well we had fun. But it slide every were we were even on the main road getting to the power lines. It was heavy and wet also raining from the powe lines down. Above that just wet snow had to gas a lot to go down hill so uphill was really fun.

 

[phatboyfilms]

Thx for the reports guys, looking to head up there fri

 

[Matte Murder]

We rode GC yesterday. No slide activity at all. The condition sounds bad but I think the warm weather has set the snow pack up pretty well. That crust layer is actually bonded up to the layer above. I just looked at the NWAC sight and didn't see anything higher than considerable. One of those times when your intuition can be wrong. NOT SAYING there is no danger, just not as bad as it seems. Check the avy forecast, carry the gear, know how to use it, watch out for each other and ride to ride another day.

 

[Cascade Addiction]

Gallagher a little sketchy

Had friends ride Gallagher yesterday, I had to work, but they said great in the first few hours then warmed a bit, snow started to get heavy. They set off a couple 1-1.5' slabs just above tree line in the lower bowls above the lake. They didn't amount to much but they did slide. Be careful out there guys, conditions could vary greatly across an area. I post this as just a heads up as I was not there personally but wanted to pass along info I was told by people that were.