Observation: Abajos

Observation Date
3/4/2023
Observer Name
Carrie, Cory, Matt
Region
Abajos
Location Name or Route
Buckboard Bowl S Ridge (BS Ridge)
Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Poor Snowpack Structure
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Normal Caution
Problem #1 Comments
Recent snowfall and heavy winds after periods of dry weather with sun affected snow.
Comments
While touring, there were no obvious signs of instability. We dug a pit at 10,000 ft on a 29 degree, E facing slope. In our pit, we found multiple pencil hard sun crusts and had a failure at 94cm - ECTP16. The layer was not reactive to us while skinning and with no other signs of instability, we were glad we did a pit test. Moderate winds were coming from the south. We toured in mostly tree-covered terrain but in more exposed areas we witnessed some 4 in wind slabs forming in low consequence terrain. There was a 2 cm sun crust on anything E, SE but really soft snow and good skiing on N aspects. Just a note that in our pit we didn't dig deeper than 30cm but our guess is that it is facets. After digging the pit and getting a failure we ended our tour and skiied down.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
Coordinates