Gog and Steep-Hollow 2-05

                                           (Images from2-24 +26-05)

Snowmobilers triggered several small avalanches like this one in the days following the windy weekend storm of February 19th and 20th.

Strong wind drifted snow during the storm onto this short steep slope.  Triggering and riding small avalanches on a slope like this can be fun and is not overly dangerous, but I have seen much deeper and more dangerous avalanches on this slope in upper White Pine Canyon.

                 Activity on a lower test slope is a good indication that you might trigger a bigger avalanche higher up on the bigger hills.

   Some slopes released avalanches which stepped down into weak January sugar snow.  The largest of these occurred on slopes that slid during the big natural hard slab cycle in January.  The crown of this natural avalanche in upper Steep Hollow, which occurred on February 20th, is almost a mirror image of a large hard slab that we examined in January.  (See "Steep Hollow Naturals" 1-15-05)

       The crown was 2 to 4 feet deep and ~600' wide.  The weak layer was faceted snow, and the snowpack on the old avalanche path was shallow.

The upper elevation north northeast facing slope is around 40 degrees in slope steepness, and it is subject to heavy wind-loading in a southerly flow.