Bill Hunt

Ogden » Snowbasin Backcountry

Snowbasin backcountry

My first run I did as "light footed" a traverse as I could toward safe zone trees, and did not trigger anything. Second run, I followed the same line, but finished with a hard pushing cut, and triggered a windslab pocket about 8-12" deep, about 14 feet wide, not running too far, but enough to make me think twice about going any higher in elevation, which would certainly be more wind-affected and slabbed up. Intermittent cracking below there, which seemed less predictable than super-sensitive cracking. Not too deep yet; this was mid-storm, so more snow and wind kept building the windslabs throughout the day. Mid-elevations were better than expected, very little bottom contact. Mid-elevation trees, out of the wind, should be excellent tomorrow. I'll give the upper elevation steeps some time to settle out.

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Moderate