Quick report
Obvious signs of windloading and active windtransport. Herman looked very wind effected (see photo) and the crown from yesterday’s (2/29) storm slab was filling in completely in some places. Noticeable wind effects under table mountain and near Heather meadows lodge. Dug two “snow pits” for our students today and had surface snow failing as i was digging the pit. Hand shear agreed that the wind transported surface snow was failing 3-6 inches deep in my pit. No other tests were performed but I expected similar results from other wind loaded locations.
Avalanche
Very large avalanche crown on the summit of table mountain probably 4-6 feet deep, covered in new snow probably failed Wednesday night or Thursday (see photo) Very large crown on the top of the white salmon glacier on the usual skin track up that route. Crown included a surprising amount of mellower terrain just above the top crevasse on the usual skin track. With the short visibility window I estimate that the steeper knob of rocks initiated the failure and it propagated lookers right into mellower terrain, but i don’t remember ever seeing it fail in that mellow of terrain on the upper white salmon glacier. Several small pockets released under blueberry cornice that looked to be 2-4 feet deep, but not the best visibility for me. Small windloaded pocket next to home run gap failed under a cornice (see photo). Someone did hike on either side of this feature but one snowboarder said he didn’t notice triggering it Or really noticed it.