4-18-09, Broads to the SLC Twins, Hardesty and Wagner

It was a war zone in upper Broads Fork - large glide releases perhaps 10\'deep from over a week ago, natural soft slabs up to 2\'deep with Wednesday\'s storm, and wet point releases from today and yesterday\'s warm up and sun.

Glide releases will still be a concern over the next week with very warm temperatures and free water running down the steep slabs of Mill B South, Broads, and Stairs Gulch.

Note the buckling stauchwall there in the middle of the frame. The often frowning glide cracks move the entire snowpack downhill. Perhaps an indicator of a release in the next day or so.

We poured Wendy\'s dark tea into the snow above the snowpit wall to look at percolation of free water in the snowpack. It percolated through the settled storm snow down to a semi-impermeable rain crust, then travelled down the slope and out the pit wall. This mirrors much of the wet sluff activity that we saw, and may be a portent for continued sluff and wet slab activity over the next few days.

Excavating down to the bed surface. Wet slabs are difficult at best to forecast - I look for free water and likely bed surfaces such as this one - for sluffs and slabs.

Like most things in life, timing is everything. A natural heat induced sluff overruns our skin track in upper Broads.