Baxter Basin

Toured up Camo skin track into Baxter and climbed the SW face of Cascade to the summit. No signs of instability under foot at any point on the ascent. At the trailhead, and at the base of our climb, we noted significant flagging from virtually every high peak and ridge, however, winds were calm in the valley. Once in the basin, we noted the winds had wreaked some havoc on the snowpack and we encountered several variable types of wind-effected snow. Although it seemed most of the snow was simply being swirled around or blown directly into the atmosphere by the cold, predominately NW wind, there were obvious signs of cross-loading and consistent transport on lower SE slopes in particular. We noted a couple very small fresh wind slabs on leeward sides of small convexities in the basin, which obviously had popped very recently. Once we gained the ridge, we saw a couple fresh crowns on bigger SE features, including Richmond sub (Bichmond) and Purple Mountain, Small avalanches though, likely D1 at most. The majority of avalanches seen today were near or below tree line. Winds blew hard up high for the entirety of our tour today. We guessed speeds were consistently around 15-20mph, with gusts likely somewhere near 30mph. Freakin' Earl...

Baxter Basin

Quick report

Avalanche