Gorge: Getting Western at the Avalanche Ranch

Riding quality was:

OK

Snow conditions were:

• Crusty
• Deep powder

We rode:

• Mellow slopes

We stayed away from:

• Alpine slopes
• Convex slopes
• Cut blocks
• Steep slopes

The day was:

• Warm
• Windy

Avalanche conditions

• Slab avalanches today or yesterday.

Large widespread Na Avalanche cycle occurred last night/early this morning at the peak of the storm.

We observed evidence of two large avalanches in steep north facing terrain at tree line 2m+ crown lines and quite destructive (size 3) potentially stepping down to older weak layers. Numerous smaller storm slab releases were observed at TL and Alpine to size 1.5 and around 20cms deep.