Triggering is less likely...but it'll be big if you do

Snowpack

southrockies · Dec 27, 2019 · Lizard

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Quick report

Weather
cold
Ride Type
mellowSlopes, denseTrees
Stayed Away
alpineSlopes, steepSlopes, convexSlopes
Riding Quality
Good
Snow Conditions
powder

We headed out today planning to ski an open treeline slope with a large convexity that was a bit steeper than the slopes we have been on this week. We headed up through the dense trees well off to the side and dug down to check on the fall crust/facet combo. Our results showed us that the weakness at the bottom of the snowpack is getting harder to trigger, but if you do trigger it, it will propagate into a large avalanche. After seeing this we decided to pull back on our plan, as travelling over a convex area would have increased our likelihood to tickle that weak layer and could have started a deep avalanche. Instead, we skied great snow in some low angle trees. Snow was fast and skiing great. Very crusty and rough skiing below 1750m.