Bow Summit
Avalanchesmitchell · Jan 3, 2021 · West Side 93N
Quick report
- Weather
- warm, cloudy, stormy
- Ride Type
- openTrees, mellowSlopes, denseTrees
- Stayed Away
- steepSlopes, convexSlopes, alpineSlopes
- Riding Quality
- amazing
- Snow Conditions
- deepPowder
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionSound, avalancheConditionSnow
We skinned up through the meadows east of the parking lot and up the creek drainage. It was snowing 4cm an hour and 25cm had fallen at the parking lot overnight. There were occasional wind gusts bellow treeline and at treeline. Observed cracking (storm slab) in the gulley. At about 1:00 we dug a pit on a 32º NE aspect slope. RB2 sudden 40cm storm slab. DTT24 facets above Nov. 5 crust. The Dec 7 and 13 layers were visible, but were unreactive in our tests. Once at treeline, we could see an estimated size 2 natural avalanche across the valley on a wind affected SW aspect steep slope. It was most likely the 40cm storm slab. Skiing was phenomenal in the deep powder. We navigated our way through open and tighter trees until we got back to the creek/gully and skinned back to the highway at about 4:45.
Weather
- Avg Temp
- -7
- Max Temp
- -3
- Min Temp
- -11
- Wind Speed
- windSpeedModerate
- Blowing Snow
- moderate
- Sky Condition
- overcast
- Snowfall Rate
- 4
- Wind Direction
- SW
- New Snow24 Hours
- 40
- Storm Start Date
- 2021-01-03T07:00:00.000Z
- Storm Snow Amount
- 40
- Temperature Trend
- steady
- Precipitation Type
- snow
Early to mid day, it was snowing over 4cm of per hour and by 1:00 it was down to 1cm per hour. Gusting moderate winds, but not sustained at and below treeline. Consistent temperature of about -7ºC. There was about 25cm of new snow at the parking lot, and 40cm by the time we did our snowpack tests at 1:30.
Snowpack
- Depth
- 205
- Site Aspect
- NE
- Test Fracture
- sudden
- Site Elevation
- 2123
- Test Initiation
- moderate
- Test Failure Depth
- 40
- Site Elevation Band
- tln, btl
- Surface Conditions
- newSnow
- Test Failure Layer Crystal Types
- stormSnow
We did two tests on a 32º slope below treeline, results were: RB2 40cm storm slab(fist resistance) failed suddenly and was planar. DTT 24 on facets above Nov. 5 crust The December 7 and 13th layer seemed to be very stable
Avalanche
- Trigger Type
- natural
- Wind Exposure
- windwardSlope
- Avalanche Size
- 2
- Start Zone Aspect
- SW
- Avalanche Character
- stormSlab
- Number Of Avalanches
- 1
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2600
- Runout Zone Elevation
- 2400
- Avalanche Observation
- 24to48hrsAgo
- Start Zone Elevation Band
- alp
- Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
- 2021-01-03T11:30:00
we observed an estimated size 2 natural avalanche across the valley on a wind affected SW aspect steep slope. It was most likely the 40cm storm slab.