Public Field Report

Observation Date:

April 5, 2023

Submitted:

April 7, 2023

Zone or Region:

Challis Area and Lost Rivers

Activity:

Skiing/Snowboarding

Location:

Lost Rivers

Did you observe any avalanches?

Yes

Avalanche Type:

Hard Slab

Size:

Size 3: Could bury and destroy a car, damage a truck, destroy a wood frame house, or break a few trees

Elevation:

Aspect:

Comments:

Truly impressive avalanche cycle. Widespread D3s on all aspects. I'm confident I saw at least 20 slides bigger than D3, and probably a handful of D4s. Many crowns were a bit older looking and likely correlated to our mid-March extreme cycles. Some crowns were pretty fresh and likely occurred during our most recent warning on April Fool's day.

Did you see shooting cracks?

Did you experience collapsing or whumpfing?

Yes, Isolated

6-8" of snow from April Fool's storm had not seen much/any sun on the morning of 4/5 (great powder skiing, even on solars earlier in the day). Snowpack is generally sled supportable, but there is a lot of Idaho sugary bullshit underneath the supportable slab near the surface. Boot pen=ground when you hop off your sled. It was possible to penetrate this upper slab with skis by jumping with some force. We experienced a few booming collapses and avoided large avalanche terrain.