Spines to Slash: Bolts Lake Couloir

Monday, April 7, 2008

Bolts Lake Couloir

1 comments:

bill said...: thats my boy, bill; May 26, 2008 5:55 AM

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Hoo dere!

9/24/09
Alpine rock climbing season is quickly coming to a close with this last weeks storm, and we are beginning to think snow.

Hell yea!

3/29/09
Quick recap of weather/snowpack in Front Range/ Summit area:
November=Dry as a bone, rapid faceting process.

December= Many large storms pounded the whole state, N mountains first, then S mountains got it later. Consistent intervals made for a strong and well bonded midpack. The month had a record number of avalanche forecasts with a "HIGH" danger, and a number of accidents occured.

January= First 1/3: A few large storms early, in between we had many weak layers form including multiple layers of surface hoar, and near surface facets.

2/3: Then major thaw in middle. The snowpack started to round out, and the basal faceted layers gained much strength, especially where the snowpack was deeper. Pronounced suncrusts on solar aspects and near surface facets on sheltered N'ly aspects.

3/3: The month ended with 1-3 ft. of snow coming in warm and bonding well for a bit... then the winds picked up, and blew from SW then NW for a substantial number of days. Hardslab natural cycle ran at the end of the month. Lots of lurking hardslabs now.

February= Started with mild weather and snowpack was mostly stable for a bit. Deeper weak layers became less of a concern. Then a storm a week pattern, and the issue was the storm snow/crust and near surface facet (old snow) interface. We had a widespread thin windslab cycle on the 15th. Month ended with high pressure.

March= Started clear and warm. Snowpack had a few lingering instabilities in upper/mid pack. By 3/6 I found it to be quite stable. A quick shot of snow after that, then high pressure for most of the month. Snowpack became stable again, folks got after it in the alpine. 3/23 a dust layer blew in with a warm storm on SW flow, a good round of snow for most areas. 3/27 big upslope with colder temps up high. Looks to be unsettled, and colder weather through early April.

Cheers,
Matt Primomo
Mountain Guide/Student

Spines to Slash

Monday, April 7, 2008

Bolts Lake Couloir

1 comments:

Hoo dere!

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