Diseased Lower Snowpack
Quick reportnick.nelson904 · Dec 11, 2025 · Spearhead
Quick report
- Weather
- cloudy
- Ride Type
- alpineSlopes
- Stayed Away
- steepSlopes
- Riding Quality
- good
- Snow Conditions
- windAffected
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionSnow
Decent riding on wind pressed snow on N and SSE aspects of Disease Ridge. From ascending and descending Disease Ridge, the top 10cm on S aspects seemed to have a 4F wind slab. Saw numerous crowns in the Alpine in rocky lee features in unsupported terrain, near ridgetops and over cliff bands. Pinned is the location of our pit.
Snowpack
- Obs Type
- summary
- Site Aspect
- S, SE, SW, W
- Test Fracture
- sudden
- Site Elevation
- 0
- Ski Penetration
- 20
- Test Initiation
- hard
- Foot Penetration
- 70
- Site Elevation Band
- alp
- Surface Conditions
- newSnow
- Test Failure Layer Crystal Types
- crust, facets, stormSnow
BLT to TL - 4cm Rain crust at the bottom of 7th Heaven and other obs suggest the storm brought rain until 1730m where the crust disappeared. ALP - Upper 30-40cm on S and W aspects of Disease Ridge observed with pole tests and hand shears. Recent storm brought a 10 cm 4F wind slab on 20-40cm F, failing easily with hand shears over older denser storm snow. I pinned the location of our pit, at 2100m on SSE aspect. As per pole tests and hand shears, upper snowpack was upside down with obvious interfaces of storm snow. It overlies the Mid-Nov crust/facet complex down 57cm, and went down to rocks at 100cm. Compression Test resulted in failures at every interface, CTE 3 PC 7cm, CTH 3 RP 17cm, CTH 8 SP 27cm, CTH 10 SP 53cm.
Avalanche
- Trigger Type
- natural
- Wind Exposure
- leeSlope
- Avalanche Size
- 2
- Start Zone Aspect
- N, NW, W
- Vegetation Cover
- openSlope
- Avalanche Character
- persistentSlab
- Crust Near Weak Layer
- 1
- Number Of Avalanches
- 6-10
- Weak Layer Burial Date
- 2025-11-15
- Avalanche Observation
- 12to24hrsAgo
- Weak Layer Crystal Type
- facets
- Start Zone Elevation Band
- alp
- Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
- 2025-12-11T10:00:00.000Z
Saw numerous crowns and avalanche paths on lee and cross loaded features in the alpine including the apron of DOA, Decker Main and SE shoulder, Psycho Chute on Fissile, and the rocky ridge at Russet. Start zones seemed to be trending towards rocky lee terrain near ridgetops or cliffs and steep slopes. Varying sizes, guessing Sz 1 to 2 but hard to tell from a distance.