Snow Pack for January 17, 2007
Thursday, January 18, 2007
By Brigid Mander
Nightmare Snowpack
The multitude of avalanche reports,
including many in which people were caught or buried, continues with a
variety of causes on a variety of aspects. The Bridger-Teton Forest
Service seems to have posted a burial or two every day over the last
couple of weeks, and many skiers reported kicking off slides of varying
severity. Hard-slab slides with crowns of up to five feet (damn! that’s
big!) have been observed, with slides in the Greys River and Togwotee
Pass areas running to the ground. Surface slides running on buried sun
crust or surface hoar have been common, with some several feet deep.
Recent high winds have formed hard windcrusts, just one more factor to
add to our nightmare snowpack before the next storm.
Recently, two skiers were caught and buried
while skinning up a slope already skied on Teton Pass. A few
basics to get back to for this week include crossing slopes one at a
time, whether traversing or skinning; spotting your friends from safe
zones, not in the avalanche path run-out; and not stopping in the
middle of dangerous slopes to rest or hang out.
— Brigid ManderPERMALINK:
Snow Pack for January 17, 2007 | Planet JH News Article: Snow Report Column
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