March 4 - 7, 2010, Big Sheep Basin, Wallowas
3/4/10
1608
1
Big Sheep was awesome... we had 3 days of bluebird skies and clear, mild weather. Found a great many stashes of hoar-powder on north and northeast facing slopes. Super fun skiing. Avy danger was pretty high... so we dug lots of pits, opted out of many nice looking runs, stuck to the trees and burns, and only skied/traveled one at a time on the low angle aspects.
Pit data showed two persistent weak layers at 12 inches and 36 inches, with the whole 4 foot snowpack sitting on a 4 inch ice layer at ground level. Shears were high quality, but held firm for all 15 load tests, and only gave way after prying with shovel blade. No visible signs of active slides in the whole area.
Some new accumulation in the next few weeks would be a welcome addition to the snowpack.
pics here
Pit data showed two persistent weak layers at 12 inches and 36 inches, with the whole 4 foot snowpack sitting on a 4 inch ice layer at ground level. Shears were high quality, but held firm for all 15 load tests, and only gave way after prying with shovel blade. No visible signs of active slides in the whole area.
Some new accumulation in the next few weeks would be a welcome addition to the snowpack.
pics here
