Eldorado Basin

Quick report

Weather

cold, sunny

Ride Type

mellowSlopes, openTrees

Stayed Away

convexSlopes, alpineSlopes

Riding Quality

amazing

Snow Conditions

deepPowder

Snowpack

Depth

250

Obs Type

summary

Site Aspect

N

Test Fracture

resistant

Site Elevation

2000

Ski Penetration

30

Test Initiation

moderate

Site Elevation Band

tln

Surface Conditions

newSnow

We saw a lot of changes to the snowpack over several days: on Wednesday the snowpack was very unstable with lots of whumpfing and a remote-triggered small avalanche (see other MIN report from the same area). On Thursday temperatures rose to above +5 degrees over freezing and wetted out the upper snowpack on South and West aspects. Throughout Thursday night it snowed 40cm and temperatures cooled down again to -10 degrees by Friday morning. We dug two pits on Friday on West aspects and still noticed wetness below the new snow layer, however, the new snow seemed to be bonding well. By Saturday, snow was dry on North and West aspects and two column tests at treeline were not reactive. Overall, winds were strong in places and variable in direction throughout the week, making for unpredictable wind loading. We also saw debris from several cornice fall avalanches in the alpine.

Avalanche

Trigger Type

natural

Wind Exposure

leeSlope

Avalanche Size

2

Start Zone Aspect

N, NE

Vegetation Cover

openSlope

Start Zone Incline

40

Avalanche Character

corniceOnly, corniceWithSlab

Number Of Avalanches

1

Start Zone Elevation

2200

Start Zone Elevation Band

alp

Avalanche Occurrence Datetime

2022-04-06T19:00:00.000Z

We noticed debris from cornice failure avalanches