Red and middle cirques had crowns from new snow avalanches but visibility was poor and we couldn't see how far they ran. Strong winds tore apart the upper elevation peaks stripping the peaks back down to rock and covering the debris piles from these new slides. We had wide spread cracking and settling on the way up the Pre Laurel highway with one good woomp. The road up to the guyser parking lot was 4wd smooth sailing on the way up, but the late afternoon winds reeked havoc on the lower part of the road below the aspens. Stiff new wind drifts developed, measuring up to 4 feet deep. We came across a van that was stuck so we stopped and then we were stuck. So we put the chains on and then we moved the giant pile of snow that they threw into the middle of the road digging themselves out, and tried to hammer through the drift. This drift was 3 to 4 feet deep about 70 yards long and growing by the second. I made it half way through then I was high centered, so we dug the truck out and knocked the drift down in front of the truck and proceeded to blast through the second half of the drift. We are not making it back up that road until its plowed. Sorry I didn't get this out last night, but I was worked after breaking trail all day and shoveling wind drifts into the early evening. And I forgot to mention: the skiing was epic!
Observer Name
Nate Z
Observation Date
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Avalanche Date
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Region
Moab
Location Name or Route
Red Cirque and Middle cirque in Gold Basin
Elevation
12,200'
Aspect
North
Trigger
Unknown
Depth
Unknown
Width
Unknown
Vertical
Unknown
Comments
Coordinates