Observation Date:
April 3, 2020
Submitted:
April 3, 2020
Zone or Region:
Sawtooth and Western Smoky Mtns
Activity:
Skiing/Snowboarding
Location:
mcdonald pk
Did you observe any avalanches?
Yes
Avalanche Type:
Soft Slab
Size:
Size 3: Could bury and destroy a car, damage a truck, destroy a wood frame house, or break a few trees
Elevation:
9400'
Aspect:
NE
Comments:
We were hiking up the ridge to McDonald pk and could see one large avalanche running across the basin on the ridge line south of McDonald pk. The crown looked to be about 12-18" deep and more than 1000' across. It looked to have a little new snow on it? maybe it happened at the end of the storm cycle. The ridge line running north on McDonald pk also had multiple avalanches than had pulled out below the cornice, again the crown looked to be about 12-18" thick, but we were aways off.
The third avalanche we observed started at about 8600' on the ridge to the south of the McDonald ridge (on the ridge behind the 'hammer'). the aspect was north, this was the freshest looking crown (this is the picture I attached)
Did you see shooting cracks?
No
Did you experience collapsing or whumpfing?
Yes, Isolated
we were limiting our skiing to the low 30 degree range. the skiing was excellent, but the hand pits I dug were reactive, we tried to be conservative.