Grand Mesa

Avalanche

Matt Barrett · Feb 8, 2016 · Grand Mesa

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Weather

sunny, warm, windless

Snowpack

Below tl nne facing, 24* slope. hs 160cm. progressively harder snow from f hard at top to 1f at bottom, rounding d.h. this is with the exception of two buried layers, one sh and one fc. ctm sp down 60cm on buried s.h. twice. ectn 22 down 60cm on same buried s.h. maybe an old track affected the ability of this to propagate in ect. pst 80/100 end down 60cm on same s.h. we surmised that with a steeper slope angle and slightly harder slab overlying this layer the results would have been different in the larger column tests. skied slopes up to 35* with no signs of instability other than one very small slide triggered intentionally.

Avalanche

one very very small slide kicked on a convexity. isolated to recent(ish) hard slab overlying a slick old hard slab. 20ft wide ran 20ft vertical. n facing. 35* slope angle. this was in a very wind affected area.