Quick report
We toured up Orca and found wind-affected snow along the ridge and a breakable sun crust on solar aspects below treeline. While it is not a concern for now, a widespread layer of surface hoar atop the breakable melt-freeze crust is a concerning set-up for the new snow forecasted for later his week.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
A few high clouds but sunny with great visibility across the Girdwood valley and the Turnigan arm. Winds were light along the ridge.
Snowpack
Snowline started around 800ft above sea level. It remained thin until we neared the treeline. As trees became sparse we began to observe a widespread layer of surface hoar that extended up to the ridgeline. On solar aspects, we observed a thin, breakable sun crust under the surface hoar. We dug a snowpit on a SW-facing slope at 2500 ft and found a homogenous snowpack that became progressively harder with depth. Our snowpit did not produce any concerning test results and we did not observe any signs of instability.
Avalanche
From the summit we observed several old avalanches and debris on Ragged, Peterson Creek Headwall, Chinstrap, and between Orca and Virgin Creek.