Buff Pass: Booty

Date

02/21/2021

Location

Day #

46

Weather Forecast

Sunday morning’s snow total is 7 inches at mid-mountain and 10 inches at the summit, and between about 500am and 700am, another one inch of snow fell. These totals were on the high end of our 4-8 forecast range and should make for fun turns on Sunday morning.

During Sunday and Monday, we’ll likely see clouds stick around with a few snow showers, and we should also see some breaks of sunshine.

Avalanche Danger

3,3,2

Persistent Slab: Large to very large likely on all aspects and elevations

It is becoming harder to trigger avalanches, but the potential size and unpredictable nature of current conditions keep the danger elevated. Make conservative terrain choices and avoid traveling on slopes steeper than around 30 degrees to limit your risk. New snow and strong northwest winds will stack another dense slab on easterly-facing slopes. You can trigger a smaller avalanche in drifted areas that steps down to weaker layers creating a more devastating avalanche. Thinner parts of the snowpack around rocks or steep break-overs are the most likely places to affect more fragile snow layers and trigger a massive slide.

Keep in mind that places you have traveled in previous years may not be safe this year under these conditions. Give all avalanche terrain a wide buffer, and be sure not to congregate at the bottom of steep slopes.

Ski Partners

Drew Hyde
Entrenchment – Dealing with a well-established persistent instability. Entrenchment (not a preferred operating mode) requires discipline to sustain it for the necessary time; this is the last resort short of closing operations completely.

Limit skiing to a small terrain selection assessed as having acceptable risk until the situation has clearly changed. New evidence continues to be gathered and monitored for changing conditions, but new terrain is only considered for opening if there is compelling evidence to do so (for example if an avalanche was observed that definitely removed the layer of concern).

Entrenchment mode is a successful operating strategy for persistent slab instabilities.Establish a limited base of acceptable operating terrain and be disciplined to operate only within that designated terrain as long as necessary for the persistent instability to run its course. Expect this to take longer than anticipated and do not step out into new terrain prematurely. Plan to maintain this discipline beyond the time when all evidence seems to indicate that the persistent instability is no longer a concern.

When dealing with persistent instabilities, discipline is more likely to be successful than cleverness –it is better to wait out the instability than to try to outsmart it.

Route

Snomo to Fats drop and ski 4x laps in Booty

Weather

Overcast, cold, light westerly wind. HN24 10″

HSN24

25cm

Precip

S1 AM

Sky

OVC

Winds

Light W

Temps

7-15F

Ski Pen

40cm

Snowpack Observations

HS 160cm, HN24 25cm low density pow, one large collapse observed while taking photos on ski line

Avalanche Activity

None observed

Suprises

More snow than expected. Winds were Mod/Strong on Soda so turned around and went to Booty instead. Parking lot was full at 8am, get there before 7:45am!

Greatest Risk

Driving down from Dry Lake on slick roads

Hindsight

Today’s plan was spot on. We did not enter avalanche terrain.

Take-aways

Feeling good about today’s choices. Great day scoping out a new zone with great snow conditions!

Challenges

Weather was challenging in the AM so adjusted our tour plan accordingly

Riding Quality

A+ conditions skiing 10-12″ light cold hero pow in a new zone!

Video