Avalanche
A skier triggered an avalanche in Lake Tahoe over the weekend Mt. Rose’s Grey Creek Chutes. ย A snowmobiler triggered anย avalanche near Relay Peak in the Mt. Rose area yesterday. ย Avalanche are still very much occurring in Lake Tahoe right now.
Lake Tahoe just got its first real snow storms since December and we all need to be careful out there. ย The advisory level today in Lake Tahoe was at “Moderate.”
Many skiers and riders will be out in the Tahoe Backcountry this week working to get above the 8,500-foot snow level. ย Above 8,500-feet, the skiing is good right now. ย Lets all be careful out there, make great decisions, follow protocol, be safe, and have a blast.
SKIER TRIGGERED AVALANCHE DETAILS:
Skier in the process of making a left hand turn triggered slide. ย After completing turn and continuing off to the left, failure slowly propogated up to the base of a rock cliff and along for approximately 80′. ย Skier was well out of the area before wind slab deposited from ridge above and approx. 2′ deep started to move. ย Slide followed obvious slide path and deposited in the flats below. ย Bed surface was fist hardness, rounded grains. – Sierra Avalanche Centerย –ย avy occurred on February 7th, 2015
SNOWMOBILE TRIGGEREDย AVALANCHE DETAILS:
Judging by the amount of snow on the debris and bed surface of this avalanche it likely occurred this morning. It looked like a snowmobile track went into the bottom of the avalanche and came out the other side. It is possible that the this slide was triggered by that snowmobiler as he or she rode up or down the side of the gully. A likely trigger point existed near uphill side of the slide inline with the track.
This slide occurred on a N-NE facing slope and the steepness ranged from 38-42 degrees. It had several trigger points in the form of shallowly buried rocks and likely progagated uphil along the softer snow layer of rounding facets above the old rain crust. The crust served as the bed surface. The debris measured between 100 and 170 cm in depth. The crown height measured 2-3 ft.
Snowpit data adjacent to the slide showed two active weak layers. One was a graupel layer within the storm snow and the other was the rounding facets above the old crust. –Sierra Avalanche Centerย – ย avy occurred on February 9th, 2015
