There’s a few folks up here taking their AMGA guide final exam, so if you see them at the pass, so hello and give them the lowdown on the area. We’ve been hanging with Marc Beverly the last few days. Marc is an alpine and climbing guide down in New Mexico and SW Colorado.
The big news is this: HATCHER AVY CYCLE STILL ONGOING. Yesterday Brian and I drove up to the pass and found widespread avalanche activity on every aspect and almost every slope. Slab avalanches, wet avalanches and point releases were and still currently are happening. We got out of the car to find a skier triggered hard slab avalanche on the west face of lower microdot. The crown was over a meter deep. The slide was remotely triggered from 10 meters above the crown and by the 11TH SKIER on the slope. I knew this skier, glad she was ok.
We don’t have an AVY center here, but I am confident in saying that the mountains are telling us to back off for a bit. Within the hour Brian and I were touring, the main bowl on Fish Peak drained out in a huge slide. Widespread collapsing is still occuting on all slopes, and some north facing aspects are loaded with over 2 meters (6 ft) of new wind deposited snow. Fractures were occurring on slopes below 30 degrees, and significant hangfire exists on rollovers.
Today, while taking a mellow route on lower gov, we follwed a single track uphill and ran into a guy named Rick. He only had one pole, and was acting a bit strange. Turns out he had just dug himself out of an avalanche. He had toured alone, behind the East ridgeline where he remote triggered a slide from above him on the NE face. He was on a low angle 15-20 degree slope. Rick said a 2 ft wall of snow came toward him from the slope above and he had to swim to stay on top. Rick is a lucky man. Just because the slope you are on seems safe, don’t forget there’s a whole mountainside above you.
Rick was a Victim…and a lucky man from Erin Kessler on Vimeo.
We left in blowing snow today, and the next storm had just arrived. Keep your terrain mellow, ski conservative, and go home to ski again. Hatcher is not messing around this week. All of North 4068 and Bald Ridge slid, 1/3 of El Dorado slid in a slab avalanche. There are slides all along Marmot, Hatch Ridge, Government, and inside Rae Wallce bowl. Let the cycle finish.
NWS is calling for temps in the 40′s, raind and snow mix, and sustained winds 15-30 mph with gust to 45. Same for tonight.
