It has been now a full month where skiing at Mores Creek Summit (MCS) is accessed via the Pilot Peak road due to low snow below 7000 feet. The great news is that skiing continues to be quite good at all aspects above 7200 feet. Although tracks are present in most of the popular ski runs. For those willing to explore, there are plenty of untracked nooks and fun lines waiting for you to track them.
 |
| Lunch at the bottom of Whoop Em Up Steeps; John, Chago, Cal, Mark - Left to Right. |
 |
| Lunch at the bottom of Whoop Em Up Steeps; Cal, Mark, Chris, John- Left to Right. |
To be honest, I felt like discounting the observation, particularly when last Wednesday there was no evidence of propagation propensity. Stability testing at a North aspect as well as South East aspect, both at 7800, confirmed that the snowpack has changed from last Wednesday due to facet metamorphosis above the buried crust layer. Steep gradients were identified at both snow pits above a buried crust.
The SE aspect weak layer above the crust is buried 60 cm from the snow surface. This same weak layer was found buried at 45 cm at a protected location with North aspect. It is worth noting that SE aspect slope we evaluated is in a slope susceptible to wind loading.
Below a short clip for a PST (propagation saw test) in a slope with SE aspect, at 7800 feet, and a steepness of 26 degrees. The weak layer was buried 60 cm.
ECT results were conflictive, but PST testing clearly suggested a propensity for fracture propagation after cutting 20-30 cm on a 1 meter column. I tend to never put all my eggs in a single basket, and I have been playing with an ECT column where the saw is use to initiate a fracture (similar to PST). Check the next video for the ECT without compression taps, where a saw cut is used to nucleate a fracture at the weak layer buried 45 cm in a slope with North aspect, 7800 feet of elevation, and a steepness of 36 degrees.
 |
| Stability Wheels: Integration of Avalanche Mechanism Likelihoods and Structural Weaknesses |
In the meantime, we have a storm heading our way that can possibly increase instability and make the buried weak layer above the crust (45-60 cm) more reactive.
 |
| John getting blasted by Snow at Pilot Peak |
Men in Black except for one - roo
ReplyDeleteChago,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it was reported, but I found out today that there was an avalanche and burial about 1 mile below pilots peak on this same day.
The information I received was that there was a solo skier, 20yo male without a beacon and any rescue gear skiing questionable slopes when he triggered an avalanche that buried him head down and only a boot showing above the snow.
The skier needs to claim himself as the luckiest man alive, as a pair of snowmobilers witnessed the slide from above and then went to see what happened. Upon arriving, they claimed that they found a dog digging around a boot and ski sticking out of the snow approximately 50 yards below the road. They dug out the skier and he fortunately lived to see another day.
Hopefully your video and this incident may help to wake up some members of the community as to the gravity of the backcountry and the potential it has when not prepared.
We have confirm that indeed there was an avalanche burial at MCS, and that the young adult skier was very happy to hear the shovels excavating him and to be out of the snow after a little more than 4 minutes of burial. We are trying to reach the skier to encourage him to share details and story so that we all can learn from this incident.
Delete