Home > Trip Reports > Jan 25, 2016, Stemilt Basin Avalanches

Jan 25, 2016, Stemilt Basin Avalanches

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Posted by jtack on 1/25/16 12:31pm
After our adventure last weekend in Clara lake Basin I was interested to see what was going on in other east facing aspects.  So today I took a tour along the northern rim of Stimelt, and it was an amazing sight.  When I finally reached a point where I could look into the basin, I discovered that all but a small piece on the very northern end of the basin had slid. Looked like a 50 to 60 cm crown that broke right at the role over. In some places it stepped down to deeper layers, and entrained the entire slope. It would have been a very bad ride.  The other amazing part was, that on the tiny little piece that had not slid, there were four sets of ski tracks.   They were not able to see the rest of the basin from where they started.  I dug a pit near where they began skiing and had very reactive results.  I have not a clew why that slope did not go, but sometimes it just pays to be lucky!  Sad to say I forgot my camera, some very interesting pic to be had, if I get back I'll post some.
That reminds me of a photo I saw recently...

entire east facing slope slides naturally. I'm not sure we're all taking this seriously enough. Thanks for the report, Jamie. I'm curious who those tracks belong to.

Jaime,is this the slope that didn't slide and had tracks?

Aaron, not exactally sure from the picture, but it was the northern most east faceing part of the basin (closest part of the basin to Wenatchee Mt.)

That's really the last "open" shot on the north end of the rim of Stemilt. It's above the "grassy knoll". I've skid it but it's kinda sketchy because if it did go you'd get strained through trees. I've never seen it slide though. It catches the first sun even this time of year and maybe that killed the surface hoar.

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2016-01-25 20:31:46