Evil E at Blue Lakes

Location Name: 
The Nipple
Region: 
Carson Pass Area
Observation Date & Time: 
Sunday, March 20, 2022 - 13:00
Location: 
38.641472, -119.932073
See map: CalTopo
Is this an Avalanche Observation?: 
No


Conditions Alerts:

  • Rapid or Prolonged Warming
  • Rapid or Prolonged Warming›Strong Sunshine
  • Recent Loading
  • Recent Loading›Blowing Snow

Terrain Alerts: 
Slopes Steeper than 30 degrees
Obvious Slide Path
Trigger Points
Terrain Traps
Terrain Matches the Advisory
Observation made by: Professional Observer

Tabs

Observation
Description of Snow, Weather, and Avalanche Conditions: 

Cool E winds observed stripping yesterday's snow from exposed slopes. Only a few inches of new snow was on wind sheltered slopes, and even less on wind exposed slopes. Redistribution patterns were irregular, and the deepest wind deposits that I could find on west facing slopes were not significant. The sun had warmed surface snow on sunny slopes, but the old snow underneath remained quite firm.

Pic 1: Someone beat me to this wind loaded test slope, and got no results. This specific slope gets loaded by both E and W winds (it faces almost due north, but is on a N/S ridge that receives winds from both directions).

Pics 2 and 3: Markleeville Peak looking from the north side, then from the west side. Although the photo from the north makes it look like the west side is getting loaded, the photo from the west shows insignificant wind deposits. I checked the near treeline west-facing slopes around The Nipple and didn't find deep wind deposits.

 

BESbswy