Anderson Cabin

Riding quality was:

Good

We rode:

• Dense trees
• Mellow slopes
• Open trees

We stayed away from:

• Convex slopes

Avalanche conditions

• Slab avalanches today or yesterday.
• 30cm + of new snow, or significant drifting, or rain in the last 48 hours.
• Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Obs from Dec 31 to Jan 4 at Anderson Cabin. Skied in during the warmup where MF crust formed to about 4400ft. On Jan 1, We observed total snowpack depth of 80 cm on a W facing slope at 4200ft with 2x SH later buried about 20/40cm with the MF crust buried by 10-20 cm from light snowfall. Then the storm hammered down on Jan 2/3 with steady N winds and 70-80cm new accumulation with temps around -9 for the duration. Storm skiing was all-time deep and blower, but lots of storm slabs running on the MF crust on unsupported steep slopes, even treed slopes. Skier Triggered several sz 1-2 slides with some sympathetically releasing adjacent slopes. Exciting times. Night of Jan 3 winds shifted to W and moved a lot of snow. Next morning We were headed out so not many obs after that, but there looked to be several crowns partially covered in alpine terrain west of the cabin.

The most important info I have to share is that on a later run, we skied back to the debris of one of the slides (sheltered N facing trees at about 3800ft) and felt a massive settlement while standing on the debris. Based on this, I’m not convinced the SH is dormant in this area, it just hasn’t hit the tipping point of loading yet. I suggest play it safe in the Terrace area until this is proven wrong!