Pro Field Report
Basic Information
Observation Details
Observation Date:
March 14, 2021Submitted:
March 15, 2021Observer:
SAC - VandenBos (off duty), VandenBos, GallZone or Region:
Sawtooth and Western Smoky MtnsLocation:
Profile/Fishhook (6,500-10,600', SW-S-SE-E-NE-N)Signs of Unstable Snow
Recent Avalanches?
YesCracking?
None ExperiencedCollapsing?
None ExperiencedBottom Line
A warm, sunny day brought the possibility for human-triggered wet loose avalanches to the table. Did not observe any recent, large, natural wet snow avalanches.
Advanced Information
Weather Summary
Cloud Cover:
ClearWind:
CalmClear skies all day, with some high, wispy stratus building in the late afternoon/early evening. Air temperatures were warm, though not outrageously so.
Avalanche Observations
Was able to intentionally trigger some D1 wet loose avalanches on slopes directly facing the sun. These involved only the upper 10 cm or snow. We were only on shaded aspects afternoon, so I'm not sure if this problem got significantly worse later in the day. I suspect it did, but we had good eyes on lots of solar terrain during the afternoon and we did not observe any natural slides.
Snowpack Observations
Solar aspects going through diurnal melt-freeze cycle. A solid overnight freeze had occurred and upper crust had broken down on SE-S by noon. Small, manageable human-triggered slides were possible at this point but these involved only the new snow that fell the previous week and were not gouging past the crusts that formed during the first week of March.
E-NE-N-NW are still holding cold snow, the upper 5-10cm of which has faceted significantly. I could imagine some new/old problems here if we got a healthy dose of snow.
Avalanche Problems
| Problem | Location | Distribution | Sensitivity | Size | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Wet Loose
|
|
Comments: Rose shaded based on where we encountered the problem. Assumed to exist on SE-S-SW-W at all elevations. |
Terrain Use
Felt comfortable traveling in steep terrain on all aspects, with travel on solars limited to the morning hours.