Public Observation
Observation Details
Observation Date:
December 24, 2020Submitted:
December 24, 2020Zone or Region:
Northern WallowasActivity:
Skiing/SnowboardingLocation:
North East aspect of Chief Joseph Mt. 7,580 feetObserved Avalanches
Did you observe any avalanches?
YesAvalanche Type:
Soft SlabSize:
Size 2: Could bury, injure, or kill a personElevation:
Crown roughly 8,000' debris field was around 7,300'.Aspect:
NEComments:
Just above chief Joseph knob, a couple of the chutes had small slides that fanned out at the bottom, they looked to be a couple days old. The debris field on the largest slide averaged out to around 80cm deep. it was roughly 70 meters at it's widest point.Photo:
Signs of Unstable Snow
Observations
I dug a hasty pit adjacent to the slide indicated in the photo, following are some bullet points from that pit.
Time: 13:20
Elevation: 7,580
Air temp: 0 deg. C
Slope: 30 deg.
Aspect: NE
Total snowpack depth: 80cm
Top 10 cm (70cm-80cm) from the 12/22 storm I believe.
55cm to 70cm looked like rain affected chunder.
Lower down (I neglected to write down the depth, my B) the faceted crystals were a very noticeable change in density from 1F to fist.
Extended column test failed at ECT 20, and propogated all the way across the column, so somewhat difficult to trigger, but when triggered it propogated easily and the fracture was quite planar, so that slab had a very smooth surface to move upon. The layer it failed on are the faceted crystals seen below, they measure 3-5mm in size.
Merry Christmas!!
Media
