1/10/13 Hwy.20 Avalanches

Approx. 4 mi. west of Early Winters road end on a N.faceing aspect at about 4500, two skiers triggered seperate slides without incident on 1/7/13. On 1/9/13 it appeared that a party of possibly 4 climbed the same route , dug a pit at about 5000', continued up until encountering a crown realease then retreated.On 1/10 , After choosing a safer route to the summit we decended. At about 4000' we arrived at the site of the 1/7 event to find a fresh skin track leading to a fresh crown realease in the same spot. A tranciever search gave no response and we found 2 sets of tracks exiting the scene. Within minutes we discovered a very lg. slide which we were able to determine had been skier triggered on 1/9/ . This one had a 2' crown 100' wide and ran approx. 500m. Again we transiever searched with no results. This slide profile was on a large opening with the start on convex , wind transported snow. 2 weak layers were found . 10"down was a Q1 shear and at 2' down was the bed surface and a Q2 shear. Neither one of us had our lupe with us so we were not able to determine the crystal details, but the timeline and overallprofile points to the hoar layer reported on 1/3 . No information has surfaced through the local pipeline about this event. I urge anyone , professional or recreational to bring to light, events like this, so all will benfit from the information. This was a hasty report and I'm hopeing FSG will write a more technical account to fill in the blanks for those inquireing minds out there . Keep your head up and your stick on th ice ! X

So, how was the skiing?

Blower@ 7000 , to fairly thick and stiff at 3000. The snow changed considerably from top to bottom. X

Great report X. Thanks.