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Payette Avalanche Center

Public Observation

Observation Details

Observation Date:
March 22, 2021
Submitted:
March 23, 2021
Zone or Region:
Tamarack Out of Bounds
Activity:
Skiing/Snowboarding
Location:
Wildwood Bowl Skier's Right

Triggered Avalanches

Did you trigger any avalanches? 
Yes
Was it intentional? 
Yes
Avalanche Type:
Soft Slab
Size:
Size 1: Relatively harmless to people
Elevation:
7250'
Aspect:
NE
Comments:
Tamarack Ski Patrol was investigating the snow conditions in Wildwood Bowl yesterday around 2:30PM. We had some touchy sensitivity on our morning routes with 6-12" of storm slab and wind slab easily failing with the weight of a skier. This avalanche occurred in the skier's right side of Wildwood Bowl (right of the rock), elevation of 7250', NE aspect, 32 degree slope (right above a convexity), time and date was 1445 20210322, avalanche type was SS-AS-R2-D1.5-I-75'x250'(vertical fall)-6-10" crown depth. This was intentionally triggered with a ski cut and ran from the top of the bowl down through the trees and into the gully at the bottom. The debris funneled into the gully at the bottom and had a depth of 2 feet. The photo doesn't show much, but it's all I had. The bed surface was a weak crust that had formed at the new/old interface (melt layer recrystallization?). Very light density snow atop a slick bed surface gave the snow plenty of energy to run all the way to the bottom and entrain lots of new snow with it. Be safe out there and continue safe travel practices.
Photo:

Signs of Unstable Snow

Did you see shooting cracks? 
Yes, Isolated
Did you experience collapsing or whumpfing? 
No

Observations

We dug a snowpit just uphill from the avalanche location two days prior (Saturday, around noon). HS was 293 cm. 4 mm graupel fell while we were in the pit. CT2 Q2 13 cm down from snow surface, failing on near surface facets atop the moist 11 cm crust forming from the melt freeze cycle and the wet snow/rain. CT24 Q2 43 cm down from snow surface, failed on more near surface facets atop a knife hard crust. ECTX. 1 mm rounds at pencil hardness below knife crust to the bottom of our pit.

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