Details

• Date: 2013/02/21

• Observer: John MacKinnon

Location

• BC Zone: Gunnison
• Area Description: Tour to steep below treeline gladed terrain
• Route Description: Toured to 10,700 ft on a variety of aspects--NE,E,SE,S and skied slopes up to 45 degrees.

Weather

• Weather Description: Tour in East River Valley under broken to overcast skies with high thin clouds. Light to moderate northwest winds with very light and isolated scattered snow showers. I did not observe any blowing snow below treeline while touring, but at the trailhead and on the drive home I noticed light blowing snow in exposed terrain below treeline.

Snowpack

• Snowpack Description: Found about 2-5" of new snow on a variety of surfaces--melt-freeze crusts, wind crusts and DFs. Skied slopes up to mid-40 degrees. Triggered a small loose-dry snow avalanche--L-ASc-R1-D1-O--on a hard ski cut over a steep convex roll. The sluff ran close to 250 vertical feet and was about 20 feet wide. It did not step down into older faceted layers but did entrain older storm snow. Steep E-NE slopes were weak and variable with each turn bringing a surprise.

Avalanches

	Date	Location/Path	#	Elev	Asp	Type	Trig	SizeR	SizeD
	2013/02/21	Snodgrass Mountain	1	<TL	NE	L	AS	R1	D1
Date: 2013/02/21 Time: 12:00 PM Observer: John MacKinnon Area Description: Steep poorly supported convex roll Landmark: Snodgrass Mountain Average Slope Angle: 45 ° Elevation: 10500 ft Sliding Surface: O - Within Old Snow Average Width: 20 m Average Vertical: 250 ft Comments: Slow moving sluff. After triggering it I continued to ski the slope and beat it down to the flats.