Our goal is to ensure you have a positive wilderness experience and come home in one piece! So,
Our goal is to ensure you have a positive wilderness experience and come home in one piece! So,
Observations from the Old Ski Bowl this afternoon
Weather Trends:
Snowpack Observations:
Three of us quested up the south fork of the Sacramento River in hopes to check on the Mt Eddy weather station and gain some snowpack observations.
Weather trends:
Observations from the Cliff Lake area:
Signs of wet instability were abundant. A surprising amount of avalanche activity has occurred above Cliff Lake on north facing terrain. Virtually every steep slope has released with some sort of wet avalanche. From the lake we could see roller balls, point-release wet loose, and wet slab avalanches. Crowns ranged from a few inches to a foot deep, spanning a few hundred feet wide. All avalanche activity was natural. A lot of this had likely occurred today, we witnessed multiple wet loose avalanches just in the period we were observing. I suspect the slab avalanches happened yesterday, with all the heavy wet snow that had fallen the night before.
Cornices on north facing terrain have grown to be impressively large in this area. I suspect with the approaching warm weather, these will begin to destabilize.
Unfortunately, we were thwarted from the Mt Eddy weather station due to the poor conditions.
Observations from Green Butte and Sun Bowl area
Everitt Memorial Highway is open! With such exciting news, I was eager to get above treeline and assess upper mountain conditions. The most obvious weather trend today was just how strong the sun was. Temperatures exceeded freezing by 9am this morning. Firm surface conditions began to soften right away, especially on solar aspects. By 12pm, solar aspects softened considerably, with firm, supportable snow underneath. Extensive surface runnels continue up to 9,000 feet.
Winds remained light out of the west, with occasional light to moderate gusts.
Climbers could be seen on the upper mountain. Climbers reported a few conditions of note from above 9,000 feet:
Firm, supportable conditions continued from Bunny Flat to Helen Lake. Above Helen Lake, the surface became punchy and slow moving. Winds strengthened above 10,000 feet. Sastrugi and wind effected snow was abundant near the summit
No recent signs of avalanche activity could be seen today. Older D1-2 wet loose avalanches could be seen on the NW aspect of Gray Butte.