Grand Count plowed yesterday.
We are sorry to report that a skier was buried and killed in a large avalanche around 5 pm Friday by Electric Lake, on the Manti/Skyline Plateau. Our sincere condolences go out to the victim's family and friends. Here is the
accident report.We will be offering a Backcountry 101 avalanche course on Feb 8, 9. It's a great way to up your avalanche knowledge with both classroom, and hands on field instruction. Click here for more details and to register. Much thanks to
Moab Gear Trader for sponsoring this course! Please visit them for all of your winter backcountry needs.
Monday night's over performing storm delivered up to 16" of new snow at 1.3" of water weight, and that's great news for our snowpack that is now at 116% of normal. The bad news is that the storm came in with wind, lots of it. First from the SW and then shifting to NW, winds blew a steady 20-30 mph with gusts into the 40's and 50's. They continued to blow most of the day yesterday tapering off in the afternoon. I don't have current data this morning but 700 mb (10,000') winds over the area are at 20 mph from the NW. Today look for increasing clouds as a storm system moves through to the north. 10,000' temps will be in the high teens, but continued light to moderate, NW winds will create wind chill values well below zero.
I don't have any reports from the backcountry yesterday, but I would expect to find deep, stiff, wind drifted snow. Trail breaking will be arduous and sleds will become easily stuck. I'll be headed up for some of the fun here in a little bit, and will let you know what I find.
Base depth in Gold Basin: 64"
It's been an active week for avalanche natural avalanche activity and numerous slides have been reported throughout the range. I'm working on a compiling a list, but a trip into Gold Basin revealed a widespread cycle with avalanches breaking 3' deep on W-N-E aspects. Talking Mountain Cirque was particularly affected. A wind drifted slope broke out up to 7' deep, and the floor of the entire basin was covered in debris. And an infrequently running slide path ran full track, depositing debris into a stand of mature trees.
