Gorge

Quick report

Weather

cloudy

Ride Type

openTrees, steepSlopes

Stayed Away

alpineSlopes, convexSlopes

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

deepPowder

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSound, avalancheConditionSnow, avalancheConditionSlab

Skied in the 15 km area of Gorge Creek. 40-60 cm of 1F hard storm snow sits above a P hard crust (Dec 17). Compression test at 1950 m on East aspect, slightly wind loaded, produced Easy results down 65 cm on the crust. We skied steep open glades, too aggressive a choice for today, triggering numerous Size 1-1.5 slabs on the crust in terrain >40 degrees. Fortunately, slab propagation was limited to the small local features we skied, otherwise avalanches would have been larger. Also observed a natural Size 2, NE aspect in an alpine feature, likely occurring late Saturday night.