Adirondack CommunityAvalanche Project

Observation Details

We ascended a south facing slope through open hardwood, then across and up some old slide paths (35-40 degrees) dominated by cedar, and some hateful bushwack to gain a ridge at about 3500 feet. South facing slide path was barely covered (6 inches) but snow was well-bonded to ice layer below...biggest concern was losing an edge and taking a sliding fall.

We descended to the north off the ridge with a downhill bushwack to a slide. Snow was deep (relatively) and beautiful (is that a technical term?) in the woods, 24-36 inches on average. Slide was northwest aspect, 25-30 degrees on average (max 35) and very protected. Some short headwalls with the typical ice bulges showing but that was the extent of steep terrain. Zero evidence of wind slabs. Storm drifts on the edge of the slide but no evidence of wind transport on the surface. Snow was perfect 12-16" deep on the ice layer and well bonded. Could not get anything to move with a few board cuts in a steeper low consequence zone on the top. We did not dig a pit. Observations and low consequence of the route gave us the confidence to proceed without further assessment. Skiing and riding was incredible given the snow drought we've been in this year.

Another slide with NW aspect that was visible from our ascent route was completely hammered and not skiable from the start zone at 4100 feet down to about 3500 feet (read - ice and rock with little snow).

Another slide with due W aspect and a start zone at roughly 4400 feet was similarly hammered at the top, but then looked skiable from about 4000 feet down. Evidence of wind transport was clearly visible from about a 1/4 mile away, with obvious drift patterns on the snow surface.