The Dragon Sleeps...for now

Quick report

Weather

cloudy

Ride Type

alpineSlopes, denseTrees, mellowSlopes, openTrees

Stayed Away

convexSlopes

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

powder, windAffected

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSound

The dragon sleeps... but may wake up if you poke it in the right spot. Experienced some very substantial whumpfs on N / NE slopes at 2100m. Very loud, wide, and could feel the snow drop under our skis! Shooting cracks for 10+ meters in some spots. Dug a profile to see what's up: CTE3 - sudden collapse - Jan 28 MF crust (3cm thick) was breaking and collapsing on significant facets layer under it (5+cm). Upper snow column dropping 2cm when it failed. Crust was down 45-50cm on Feb 10th, so deeper now. 3 tap easy result and whumpfs were on lee slopes that had wind loaded, increasing load and pushing the crust to a tipping point. Much safer results in protected areas. Despite the reactivity, whumpfs, and cracks, there were zero naturals observed and we were not able to ski cut any avalanches.

Weather

Avg Temp

-5

Wind Speed

windSpeedLight

Wind Direction

SW

Snowpack

Depth

275

Obs Type

summary

Site Aspect

N, NE

Test Fracture

sudden

Site Elevation

2100

Test Initiation

easy

Cracking Observed

1

Test Failure Depth

50

Site Elevation Band

tln

Surface Conditions

newSnow

Whumpfing Observed

1

Test Failure Layer Crystal Types

crust, facets