Quick report
This was an off-duty ski tour to move through terrain, see how the last storm played out in the central Sawtooths, and enjoy the high pressure.
Moving through miles of terrain, I did not experience any cracking or collapsing.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- light
- Rain Elevation
- All precip fell as snow in terrain traveled
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
A sunny, blue-skied, spring day in the mountains. Winds were calm and a crisp inversion very present when I left the bunkhouse in Stanley around 06:00, with temperatures increasing and winds staying calm through traveling on the moraine. Moderate SW winds were able to make their way through the terrain once I reached the top of the first bench on the entrance into Monolith. These moderate SSW winds shifted more WSW and increased to the upper end of moderate / lower end of strong with strong gusts throughout the day into the afternoon. Around 15:00 high thin cloud bands moved over the Monolith drainage, but by the time I was traveling on the moraine back to Stanley just before sunset there were cloud breaks with sun filtering through. Clouds were building to the W as the small low-pressure system made its way over the Sawtooth crest into the evening.
Snowpack
The high pressure as usual made for an excellent day for moving through the mountains as well as weak layer formation. SH was well-formed in low and mid-elevation sheltered terrain, with near-surface faceting present in most terrain at middle elevations that wasn't wind-exposed. A non-ski supportable MFcr on solars had the potential to become a slick new weak layer after our next significant loading event (facet + crust combo). While strong SSW winds were honking through the day after climbing up above the main bench into the Monolith basin, there was minimal snow for transport available on solars making wind loading mostly a non-issue on northerlies. There were pockets of wind drifted snow with the beginnings of wind slab development, however they were very small, isolated, and not consolidated enough to truly impact travel choices.
Avalanche
I observed more than a handful of large avalanches in big, rocky, alpine terrain in the western and southern Sawtooths from ridgelines. Will update this section with occurrences as time allows.