Avalanche on Tallac

Location Name: Mount Tallac Region: Desolation Wilderness Area (including Emerald Bay) Observation Date & Time: Sunday, January 15, 2023 - 05:23
Location: 38.922455, -120.092248 See map: CalTopo	Is this an Avalanche Observation?: Yes Conditions Alerts: Avalanche Activity Recent Loading Recent Loading›Blowing Snow Recent Loading›More Than a Foot of New Snow Terrain Alerts: Slopes Steeper than 30 degrees Obvious Slide Path Trigger Points Terrain Traps Terrain Matches the Advisory

Observation made by: Public

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Observation

Description of Snow, Weather, and Avalanche Conditions:

While heading up the lower slopes of Tallac today there were two fresh avalanche crowns visible near the lower slopes of Cascade Bowl that likely slid in the early hours this morning as there was just a couple inches of snow covering the debris. It appeared they ran concurrently. Tree tops had been broken off in the runout. Did not venture near the start zones to examine the failure layer.

Fresh avalanche crown around 7000' on east aspect, below the other crown

Avalanche Details

Failure Plane/Weak Layer:

Storm Snow

Trigger

Trigger:

Natural

Terrain

Start Zone Slope Angle:

38degrees

Aspect:

East

Starting Elevation:

near-treeline

Size

Destructive Size:

D3 Could bury and destroy a car, damage a truck, destroy a wood frame house, or break a few trees.

Relative Size:

R3 Medium

Crown Height:

2 ft

Avalanche Width (Average width):

300ft.

Avalanche Length (Vertical Run):

800ft.

Weather Details

Elevation of Observation:

7000 - 8000 ft.

Blowing Snow:

Moderate

Wind Direction:

Southwest

Wind Speed:

Moderate

Sky Cover:

Broken - Mostly Cloudy - more than 4/8 and less than 8/8

Highest Precipitation Rate:

Light Snowfall (S1 (S-1 = 1 cm /~.5 in per hour)

Precipitation:

Snow

Air temperature:

Below Freezing

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