Ward Canyon

- Pleasant ski conditions today with the little extra new snow and settlement overnight. - Upper elevations (above 7800ft) skiied the best with HST around 20-25cm. Lower elevations skiied half as deep also with a more pronounced crust under the new snow. - Triggered a few small isolated wind slabs on the crest, stubborn in sensitivity on N/ NE.. Also of note the E / NE winds removing snow upslope. (sorry no pics due to low vis + clouds) - Snowpit site location + data: NE / 8250ft HS 200cm /// HST 20cm Upper profile: Fist hard new snow (20cm), followed by micro melt/freeze crust with fist hard near surface facets (10cm) underneath as layer of concern. CTM (SC) down 23cm x2 ECTN12 down 23cm x2 Thoughts on current snowpack set up: With the layer of concern now being buried (will most likely linger into our next event) and seeing multiple sudden collapses within old faceted snow one could assume as we introduce more load: a larger / harder slab, we could see avalanche activity on said layer. I also think the distribution is tricky here. The lower and mid elevations lack the "weaker" faceted grains and the crust is also protecting those layers. So in theory, informal observations on your tour up might lead you to believe the buried weakness is not of concern. I found it to be prevalent above 8200ft in this area (in line with upper elevation start zones). Read the forecast, be smart and execute a good plan if/when things get interesting next week. - Jan a few isolated mini collapses in my fresh skin track in open north facing terrain above 8200ft.

Quick report