Strange season
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
By Lisa Van Sciver
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-This season’s complicated snowpack continues to react in strange and unpredictable ways. Last weekend, the usual wind direction switched and blew from the east. This easterly wind transported snow and loaded it onto shallow, wind scoured, sun crusted slopes. Recent periods of high pressure helped stabilize the snowpack in some areas, but also weakened it in others. Surface hoar growth on north aspects and near surface facets on sunlit slopes will be hazardous once buried.
On Feb. 13 Bridger Bowl’s accessible backcountry produced a record avalanche. Saddle Peak, covered in ski tracks, ripped after a person unintentionally broke a large piece of cornice onto the slope. The snow released causing an avalanche with enough force to destroy large trees. The ingredients included a hard slab over low-density snow grains, loaded with several feet of snow containing five inches of water. Then the cornice triggered a large, fast moving avalanche.
Here in the Tetons, destructive slides have been occurring on south southeast slopes. We lost our second experienced mountain companion to the Tetons this year on the south face of the South Teton. The face unexpectedly slid after being checked for stability. This sad and unexplainable event reminds us, snow is always changing and nature is much older than we will ever be. JHW
PERMALINK:
Strange season | Planet JH News Article: Snow Report Column
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