Collapsing

Rapid Warming

The extremely warm temperatures caused a number of recent, wet avalanches, both point releases and some wet slabs about a foot or less deep. The slab was the new snow and it was sliding on the dirty layer of old snow. I was thinking about taking a quick run to Devil's Castle but as I crossed some small test slopes the same aspect and steepness, the new snow collapsed in large, booming collapes and onto a wet layer at the new-old snow interface. I quickly decided to back off going up Devil's Castle and took the cat track to Sugarloaf instead. And a good thing because skiing on the untracked snow was nearly impossible in the extremely slabby consditions. The cat tracks were the only option to get up or down the mountain. Definitely not worth the effort in these very warm temperatures.