Avalanches, Avalanches…Everywhere!

Avalanche on Static Peak.

I got out to ski some very variable snow on Friday and saw the evidence of a few more avalanches.  I think most happened on Wednesday…naturally.  The slide on Static Peak had a maximum crown height of 6-8′ and looked to have triggered another avalanche lower down on the skiers right, that wrapped and continued around a ridge line.  Our thoughts were that since the deposition pile was so spread out, you probably could have survived the larger avalanche if you didn’t break you leg or inhale a mouthful of snow on the way down.  Very good representation of a “stauch wall” as well.

Crowns on Peak 11,094.

Another slide was spotted on the easterly slopes of Peak 11,094, just southwest of Buck Mountain.  This slide looked to have ripped from above and then from the looks of the crown on the bottom right in the picture above, triggered a large sized avalanche below.  I wish I could have seen the debris pile for this one.   You can also see in the lower center of the picture, how a chuck moved a few feet, but then lost energy and stopped.  Finally, besides many smaller crowns that were visible all over the place, we could also see a crown in the Banana Couloir of Prospector Mountian.  My question is, how many of the three do you think were triggered by mountain goats?  Seriously!

Here are a couple photos from an attempt to ski the Middle Teton yesterday. The avalanche danger had us gunning for the mellowest route, the Southwest Couloir. But as expected, the recent high winds had scoured it clean and caked it with rime ice, making it impossible to ski. And with all the ice raining down on us, dangerous to climb, forcing us to turn back about 500′ from the summit.