A month has passed since I was last around the Grand Lake area, and the coverage is significantly better. Most slopes now have continuous snow below 10,000 feet. While there are still a lot of burned logs and branches sticking out of the snow, coverage above 10,600 feet is enough to venture off the trail slowly. Riding conditions are tricky, as you would punch through the weak snow near the ground on almost all aspects, even around 11,000 feet. Visibility made it challenging to see the slopes of Little Gravel and Gravel Mountain, but it looked like there was at least one old avalanche. The formed cornices are large, suggesting that the easterly-facing slopes have a dense, cohesive slab resting on top of weak layers near the ground.

It was great to see everyone out for the Veterans Ride today! Also, thanks to the Grand Lake Trailgroomers for keeping the trails in good shape!

Grand Lake/ Gravel Mountain

From the Idleglen Staging area, we followed the road towards Little Gravel, then to Gravel and back.

We saw evidence of an old avalanche that was probably over a week old.

Regardless of where we traveled, we found a widespread weak layer buried about a foot below the surface. It didn’t look like there was a new persistent weak layer in the upper snowpack, but most places we dug today had about eight to twelve inches of new snow, which was very light. We dug on an east-facing slope around 10,000 ft and found new snow that was not cohesive enough to form a slab on top of weak snow that was likely formed in early January, as this slope likely didn’t have much snow on it before then. Our Extended Column Test did not produce any propagating and crumbled away as the snow was so weak. We additionally found similar results on a north-facing slope around 11,400ft where I had dug the previous month. The only propagating ECT result we got today was on a southeast-facing slope below treeline with two taps from the shoulder around a facet/crust combination. We’ll have to keep an eye on this as we continue to get more snow and add a thicker slab on top of these weak layers.

It was a relatively warm day compared to last week. Overcast skies, light snow throughout the day, and light winds out of the north made it pleasant.