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The Wild and Wondrous Camas Valley
Location Name:
Arrow Lake, GNP
Observation date:
Monday, March 12, 2018 - 12:00
Is this an Avalanche Observation:
Yes
Observation made by:
Public
Location
Tabs
Quick Observation
Toured into Arrow Lake on 3/10 to spend a few nights in the park.
Attempted to climb and ski Heaven's Peak Southwest Face early Sunday morning.
Made it up to ~8000ft by 7:30am, where we began to encounter some questionable wind slabs.
It seemed that the previous storm cycle was fruitful at this elevation (1-2 ft slab) and was resting on a smooth solar crust from warm period prior (3/7).
The surface crust from Saturdays warming/refreeze was stout, but becoming ever thinner as we gained elevation.
We chose to abandon the rest of the climb due to the evident poor structure and severe potential consequence for an error in that terrain.
Opted for less severe terrain on Monday before departing.
Climbed and skiied South and East facing terrain from the 7813 unnamed highpoint west of Arrow Lake
Topped out early and waited for the snow to soften up for the descent. Started down at 930am, but probably could have waited another hour or so. The snow was quite firm still for the most part.
Observed a number of wet loose avalanches on E S and W aspects during the three day outing. Some of which seemed to be initially point releases that triggered storm/wind slab.
Also, had the pleasure of observing the carnage from the Deep Slab avalanche that released from Heaven's Peak on Feb 8th. This slide ran full path (~4900 feet) to the valley floor and deposited 50-100 feet of debris onto the creek. The outlet of Arror Lake is currently tunneling underneath the debris pile, meaning that the lake was likely temporarily dammed during the event. This slide uprooted sizable trees down low and seemed to widen the flanks of the historic runout. A truley violent display.
Snowpack, Avalanche, Weather Images:
Travel Details
Region:
Glacier National Park - McDonald Lake Area
Activity:
Skiing
Snowboarding
Snowpack Details
Snowpack and Weather Details:
Terrain
Elevation of observation:
3500-5000 ft
5000-6500 ft
Above 6500 ft
Aspect(s) of observation:
E
SE
S
SW
W
Red Flags:
Rollerballs / pinwheels
Avalanche Details
Avalanche Details:
Date and Time of Avalanche:
Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - 09:30
Avalanche Type:
Wet Loose
Failure Plane/Weak Layer:
New/old snow interface
Trigger
Trigger:
natural
Terrain
Aspect:
Southeast
Starting Elevation:
above-treeline
Avalanche Location:
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