Firebrand pass trail to Lena Lake
Quick report
Very thin snowpack greeted us as we skinned the Firebrand Pass trail with large swatches of bare ground which made the skinning adventurous to say the least. Appears that this past week’s storm did either not bring much precipitation East of Marias Pass or it was all blown away with the wind. Skied a line above Lena Lake which held bullet hard snow. A quick snow pit showed a very hard layer about 12 inches deep resting on slightly softer snow. It took considerable force to get propagation at this interface. This top layer was difficult to puncture with both skis and crampons. Other wind slab noted on East and North facing terrain was never found to be thicker than a couple inches, however this may deeper in spots that had more snow to actually move around.
Avalanche
Massive glide cracks noted on the East face of Red Crow Mountain failing at ground level.