Careful out there this weekend Folks!

We received over 1″ of rain in the the last 24 hours here in the valley. We have also seen quite a bit of warming during that time. Winds have remained strong.

What was fragile is now dangerous in places. Avalanche danger has gone from Severe to HIGH!

There should be some good turns in the new snow in places this weekend. But be extremely cautious and choose your lines wisely.

You wouldn’t find me in the hills without my tranceiver, probe, and shovel, as well as a good personal knowledge of backcountry conditions and rescue skills.

Watch out for avalanches over the next few days!

Showboat, a little fragile in spots…

12-17-09

After all the sun and blue bird days, we are back to our normal Southeast Winter weather.  The beginning of the system that moved in yesterday didn’t bring as much snow as I had hoped.  The skin up the lower mountain showed little new snow maybe an inch or two in spots.  With the heavens quickly closing in Kanaan and I decided to try Showboat for a quick early morning run.  We had been eying a few lines in the alders from the parking lot, so we decided to give it a go, over  the disappearing West Ridge.  The wind picked up out of the East to Southeast, consistent with the forecast, as we ascended through the lookers right trees of Showboat.  We began to traverse over the ridge to link up with the lines we had scoped from the lot.  The wind was definitely moving snow and depositing it on West facing slopes.  It seems clear that wind loading is occurring and that a weak bonding layer exists resulting in slabbing (see photos below).

After doing a little investigating of the snow pack we moved on to our alder filled goal.  The snow in the Showboat alders was more consistent and stable than the wind loaded ridge. The skiing was fast and fun the whole way down.

The run spit us out right below the base of the Ptarmigan chair, and with minimal hiking we made it down to the parking lot.  The precipitation was moving in and out from a thick snain to snow.  Its shaping up to a be a good weekend.  Be careful out there.

-Chris