Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
We toured to PMS Bowl from the Sunburst parking lot and found about 2" of storm snow from the parking lot to our highest point at 3,300'. Above 2,300', winds deposited pockets of snow up to 6 inches deep on leeward slopes while scouring some ridges.
We saw one small, storm related, natural dry loose avalanche (D1) on the south side of Sunburst. We observed short (5 ft) shooting cracks while skiing through a few small wind-loaded pockets, but no avalanches released. Triggering a small wind slab avalanche seemed possible, however the wind-loaded pockets we encountered were stubborn and did not show signs of instability.
We dug two pits on a southerly slope in PMS Bowl and had no significant test results (ECTX). We skied one lap in the upper PMS Bowl and found good snow and fun skiing, with soft snow in the upper bowl to around 2,600 ft and 2 inches of storm snow over a breakable crust below 2,600 ft.
We observed one small, natural, dry loose avalanche on the south side of Sunbrurst (D1). We had short shooting cracks (5 ft) up to 3 inches deep in a couple windloaded pockets but we did not observe slabs releasing. Below most of these windloaded pockets was a thin crust atop sugary facets.Weather
- Air Temp
- 17
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 5
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Broken skies with calm winds. Visibility remained good for most of the morning until a layer of fog rolled into the valley late in the afternoon, making travel difficult above treeline.
Snowpack
Most surfaces are covered by 2" of storm snow. We dug two pits on a southerly slope at 3,100' in PMS bowl and did not have significant test results (ECTX). However, we did notice developed near-surface facets right beneath the new snow. In a different location with more wind-affected snow with a more significant slab on top of the facets, this could be a concerning layer. Wind scoured some of the Magnum ridgeline and deposited snow on the southerly slopes, with wind pockets up to 6 inches deep in areas. We found isolated pockets that produced short (5 ft) shooting cracks, but we were unable to produce any small slab avalanches during our traveling tests. We expect there are pockets of wind-loaded snow over sugary facets that could produce avalanches, so we chose to avoid larger wind-loaded areas during our travel.