Grand Mesa

Avalanche

Colin Mitchell · Mar 10, 2015 · Grand Mesa

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Weather

Warm and a little breezy with scattered high clouds. Very pleasant day.

Snowpack

Snow surface featured surface hoar on top of a fairly stout melt-freeze crust on N aspects. No surprises below this. Storm snow from the last two weeks has consolidated into a pencil hard slab. Facets and buried surface hoar from our dry spell are still reactive to tests, ECTP M SC x 3. This is a significant improvement from my last visit when I got ECTPV and ECTP6 on the same layer, but still not back to where we were a few weeks ago in terms of stability. It will likely take some time for these weak layers to round.

Avalanche

Road cut at MM 39 slid naturally, probably on Wednesday the 4th. The berm from the plows kept most of the debris on the side of the road. There were ski tracks near this slope, and it is possible that a skier triggered it from above the cut, and tracks were not visible from the road.