Quick report
Snow quality was excellent. Soft and fast travel. South winds were hard at work in this zone, impacting the snow surface with obvious texture, drifts, and ripples. Fresh wind slabs were building on north-facing terrain. We avoided north-facing terrain that was sustained over 35 degrees in steepness. Wind-affected crusts and melt-freeze crusts exist on various aspects. Upper elevation, south-facing terrain was holding soft snow and crust was inconsistent up high. We did not observe much of a slab within the new snow, except for new wind slab development.
We observed evidence of two natural avalanches that occurred within the past 48 hours. Winds were actively blowing and drifting snow, building fresh wind slabs on northerly-facing terrain. I released two, small wind slabs on test slopes (6-8" deep).Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 25
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Another beautiful bluebird day. Temperatures were slightly cooler than yesterday and there were a few more clouds. Winds were cranking out of the south. Winds were drifting and blowing snow onto W-E aspects on the polar side of the compass. Winds kept the temperatures down and there wasn't much loose snow shedding off rocks and trees. Skies developed scattered cloud cover in the afternoon.
Snowpack
We observed a fairly right-side up snowpack with about 30-40 cm (12-15") recent storm snow. We dug two pits, with targeted observations to the upper 2-3 feet of the snowpack. Pit A was around 7300, W/NW aspect, HS 270 cm (9 ft.). Several ECTN results failing moderate to hard within upper 2 feet. No notable weak layers of concern noted. Pit B was around 8000', E/NE aspect, HS 410 cm (13.5 ft.). Similar structure and results to lower elevation pit. CT 28 RP, ECTN 24, 48 cm (18") down. This layer of rimed DF was identified as older storm snow.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5 R1
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 8100 ft
Another small natural avalanche observed on an adjacent ridgeline to the west. Similar size, E/NE aspect, around 8200'.