Observations – February 12, 2013

That magic window of blissful Front Range powder skiing was short-lived, as usual.  The winds picked up Tuesday afternoon and the rapid transport and redistribution of snow into deposition zones and catchment areas had begun in earnest.  Touchy, soft wind slabs quickly developed.  We found many on our tour from the Glen Alps trailhead, up the Little O’Malley Gully, and over to the False Peak Gully.

The climber’s right flank of the Little O’Malley Gully harbored an impressive assortment of these touchy soft slabs:

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We traveled atop the climber’s right flank of the gully to get a feel for wind slab development.  Some cracking early on our trip up:

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First, of many, soft slabs we were able to get to pull out:

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A look at conditions in the False Peak Gully (still too thin for safe fun w/o the possibility of serious base damage):

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Upper part of False Peak Gully (likely windloaded, unstable, and ripe for small slides that while not bury-able would push you over these rocks leading into the thinly covered gully below):

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Another ski-cut soft wind slab on the way out:

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Yet another (we dug a pit on the looker’s left flank of this one):

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Aforementioned snowpit:

Lil O'Malley Gully - 2:12