Point 6

With sunny skies and very warm temperatures, wet snow avalanches were the primary concern today. Sunny slopes were already very wet and unsupportable to skis in places by the time I got up there in the late morning. I observed several recent natural wet loose avalanches on steep sunny slopes. I also easily intentionally triggered wet loose avalanches on steep sunny slopes. The avalanches would start small with rollerballs near ridgeline and get larger and larger, entraining more snow as they moved down slope. With a large enough steep slope, avalanches were approaching size D2 (large enough to bury someone). The avalanches required relatively steep slopes to get going, but were quite sensitive to triggers on those steep slopes. 

Upper elevation northerly slopes remained generally dry and only minimally impacted by the sun and warm temperatures. I found the January 24th surface hoar layer buried and well preserved on multiple upper elevation northerlies. On a NE aspect at 7800 ft, it was 2-3 inches deep, and the surface hoar crystals were large 2-4 cm feathers. There wasn't enough of a slab in this location for it to be a concern yet. On a wind loaded NW facing roll at 7800 ft, it was 12" deep and produced a propagating result in an extended column test on the 13th tap (ECTP13). The surface hoar crystals in this location were smaller, 3-8 mm in size, but still well preserved. This surprised me because this location on the west side of Point 6 is normally a very wind affected slope. The takeaway is that the surface hoar has already created an isolated persistent slab problem in wind loaded terrain, and when we build a slab above it in other areas, it could become a very widespread problem on shady slopes. The good news is that the surface hoar has likely been destroyed on sunny slopes by the sun and warm temperatures. Some quick hand pits on my way back down through Snowbowl lead me to believe the surface hoar could still be intact on some middle elevation northerlies, but I'm not certain.