Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
We went out for a pre-storm tour. We experienced low visibility, light winds with moderate gusts reported on Hatch with gusty conditions at Hatcher Pass proper. Conditions are rough with firm, thin scoured ridges with exposed firm icy bed surfaces from early Oct in some locations and crossloaded firm wind slabs in other locations. We observed new stubborn, thin wind slabs that appeared well bonded to existing surfaces and formed over the last 24 hours. With a recent human triggered avalanche yesterday and several remotely triggered avalanches earlier in the week, we chose a conservative tour and chose not to descend over to the Willow side with poor visibility and the incoming storm.
We experienced cracking of 4F to 1F hard wind slabs on Bennets Ridge nudging into $1000 Run. These were shallow (6" or less) but could see wind drifting on truly leeward terrain. The last reported human triggered avalanche was yesterday in Two Lakes near Gold Mint. We did not observe any new naturals today but couldn't see anything either.Weather
- Air Temp
- 24
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- 1,400' (observed @ 1330)
- Recent Snowfall
- 1" (S1 at 1330)
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Today we experienced low visibility, moderate winds gusting SE 21 with mild temps in the 20s preceding the incoming storm. It was snowing lightly throughout our ride up to the pass and descent.
Snowpack
Snow surfaces remain scoured and icy on Bennets Ridge and the Pass ridge of Skyscraper. In these areas, small slabs were observed over ice.