Observation: Soldier Peak

Route today was standard mid-BCC tour: Reynolds, Little Water, and Soldier. Winds were light below about 9k, but plenty of wind-affect above that elevation. Fresh wind slab were 1F or P-hard, and up to 30 cms thick. Easy to get cracking in areas with fresh wind slabs, and noticed a large, natural crack on a NW aspect with a fresh wind slab sitting on top of facets. Had this been a steeper slope, it would have been a natural avalanche.

The snowpack in mid-BCC is shallow and incredibly weak with HS ranging from 30-60 cms. The slab on top of the weak facets is 15-30 cm and up to 4F hard.

In wind-affected terrain along the upper ridges (Reynolds and Little Water through Wilson) there were plenty of fresh wind drifts on top of these weak facets with cracking and collapsing on wind-drifted aspects. It is this type of terrain that I'm most concerned about as there is a much-stronger slab atop the weak facets.

Photos of cracking:

Dug several pits and most were ECTN (no propagation) but this pit on a slope adjacent to one that I had just gotten a huge on was ECTP18, failing 30 cms down in very weak facets.

As the weak snowpack adjusts, it is getting harder to trigger avalanches that fail on the persistent weak layer. But I would be especially cautious in wind-affected terrain at the mid and upper elevations where the recent winds have created fresh drifts on top of these weak facets.

A generous 5-10 cms including Saturday night snowfall. HS ranges from 30-60 cms.