A large natural slide was observed near the Maid of the Mist up Hyalite Canyon. This slide occurred on a heavily wind loaded slope and was likely triggered by a natural cornice drop. It's hard to say what layer this slide failed on, but there is a good chance it was the near surface facet layer formed in the middle of February. Photo Andrew Newman
Wet snow avalanche danger
This avalanche occurred either Tuesday (3/6) night or early Wednesday (3/7) morning. The main avalanche broke near the ground about 5 feet deep. it was likely triggered by a small wind slab that broke in the rocks above. This is a NE facing slope at about 10,000 ft. Photo: GNFAC
This feature is just west of the Sphinx and is known as the Helmet. It is a NE facing slope at about 9000ft. this photo was included to demostrate the widespread nature of recent avalanche activity. Photo: GNFAC
It was unclear if these avalanches were naturally or human triggered. They are on a SSW facing slope at about 9000 ft. The snowpack was very thin in this area but loaded by storms on the weekend of March 3/4 and another storm March 6. The crowns were about 1ft in size and total snowpack depth wasn't more than 2 ft. Photo: GNFAC
These avalanches occurred above McAtee Basin on NNE facing slopes at about 9500 ft. They appear very similar to anothe slide nearby that broke 3 ft deep. There are three crown lines visible and they probably all happened at the same time sometime on Wednesday (3/7). Photo: GNFAC
This natural avalanche occured sometime Wednesday. It broke 3 feet deep on a NE facing slope at 9830 ft. Photo: GNFAC
This is part of the crown to a natural avalanche. See the full slide at http://www.mtavalanche.com/images/12/mcatee-avalanche and crown profile at http://www.mtavalanche.com/images/12/mcatee-wilderness-boundary-snowpit?size=_original Total snowpack depth is 150 cm and the avalanche broke on a layer of 1.5mm facets at 66cm above the ground. It was about 3 ft deep. Photo GNFAC
