Natural avalanche witnessed - Pilot Creek
A group watched a natural avalanche from the Pilot Creek Parking area cascade down the mountainside on Friday, 2/24/23 at 5:00 PM.
A group watched a natural avalanche from the Pilot Creek Parking area cascade down the mountainside on Friday, 2/24/23 at 5:00 PM.
From IG. “I spotted a large crown this morning on the E face of Bole. The crown appeared to be pretty deep, at least a few feet, and propagated quite wide. It also looked like there was a debris path coming down the apron of the E face of Hyalite peak, but I was too far away to know for sure.”
From IG. “I spotted a large crown this morning on the E face of Bole. The crown appeared to be pretty deep, at least a few feet, and propagated quite wide. It also looked like there was a debris path coming down the apron of the E face of Hyalite peak, but I was too far away to know for sure.” N. Sramek
From IG. “I spotted a large crown this morning on the E face of Bole. The crown appeared to be pretty deep, at least a few feet, and propagated quite wide. It also looked like there was a debris path coming down the apron of the E face of Hyalite peak, but I was too far away to know for sure.”
We rode to Henderson Bench and dug a pit on a northeast aspect at 9,400'. We had ECTX x2. Last week's snow had settled to about 2.5' and was well bonded. There was one harder wind blown layer in the middle that created an upside down density change, but it did not react in stability test. Total depth was 266cm. We measured 0.65" SWE in the top 10" of snow which we assume is what fell since yesterday morning.
We rode over to Scotch Bonnet and dug on a SW aspect at 9,700'. We had some ECTNs near the middle of the last week's snow, and 2x ECTP29 on facets down 3.5'. We did not see any obvious stability concerns in our pits, but the large amount of snow and wind last week followed by many avalanches is enough to keep danger elevated for a couple more days, especially with continued snowfall and/or wind-loading.
On 2/12/23 Riders saw "Seemed to be a decent sized slide runoff was pretty deep where it stopped in the trees figured it was probably two days old. Southwest facing. Roughly 44.86695° N, 111.24123° W"
From email 2/26/23: "I had heard a rumor from snowmobilers that there was a human triggered avalanche on Lionhead on Thursday the 23rd. While in Taylor Fork yesterday, we ran into one of the individuals that was a part of the incident.... he and a buddy were climbing together and he uncovered a rock that his buddy then hit. While the first rider continued to climb he triggered a slide, and it partially buried the second rider. He was able to deploy his airbag, but was carried approximately 100 yds down slope where he was buried. He was quickly found by other members of his group.
From 2/26/23: "Today we toured to a ridge across from the west face of Republic Mountain. We observed multiple natural avalanches on several aspects. Winds were calm until around noon, and then picked up in the afternoon and were heavily loading north aspects at this location." Photo: E. Schreier
On 2/25/23 a group reported, "On the southwest ridge of Mineral Mountain we observed a large slide, approximately 200ft wide, that appeared to trigger another slide lower down on the slope."
On 2/26/23 the same group noted more recent natural avalanches near Republic Mtn.
On 2/26/23 a skier saw another natural avalanche near Sheep Creek. Large avalanche on a small slope.