Castle Peak. Natural Slide. Sunday/ Monday

J.A.E.O.P.W.L... Just Another Example Ofthe Persistant Weak Layer.

We toured up through the wallows on the Western flank of Castle Peak and observed this naturally occuring slide well below treeline. The slide seemed to occur on Sunday/ Monday, after the Saturday rain (crust) storm snow and before the nice new snow ending the storm. About 6 inches of new snow covered the feature, which indicated that the event occured midstorm cycle this last weekend. The terrain covered a classic, convex rollover 35+ degrees, with several tree/ rock trigger points. The crown propogated 250+ feet and released about a 200 foot vertical slope into the drainage gully

The Saturday raincrust was evident about 35cm below the crown and extended from the flanks, partway into the bed surface, showing a step down (3 inches) into the sugary faceted snow (Dec 1) persistant week layer which was consistant throughout the bed surface. I ventured out into the slide path to sample the snow on the bed surface and found very loose, round facetted snow along the entire slope. This was the first natrual slide that I have seen along the crest between Donner Summit and Descolation in the last few days. Even though this slide occured in a predictable zone a few days ago, it is a good reminder of the PWL lurking underneith. No skiers were harmed in the sampling of this slope ;+}