Wind loading up Alexander
Quick reportsouthrockies · Feb 2, 2023 · Elkford East
Quick report
- Weather
- sunny, windy
- Ride Type
- denseTrees, mellowSlopes, openTrees
- Riding Quality
- Good
- Snow Conditions
- powder
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionSnow
Went sledding in a west facing bowl on the divide. Found more soft snow available for transport than we expected and the wind was loading constantly while we were out there. So much so that we saw a couple of small natural wind slab avalanches come down while we were there. So we stuck to mellow trees well away from any overhead hazard and had good sledding!
Snowpack
No significant failures in our snowpack tests even though there were large facets making up the bottom of the snowpack. No crusts either.
Avalanche
Observed two size 1 naturally triggered wind slabs from steep alpine. There was sustained wind loading during our time in the field. The winds were from the west and got stronger with elevation. The tops of the mountains were getting scoured back to rock in exposed spots and most of the snow wasn't coming back down again :(