Peeler Lakes

We checked out the large avalanche reported yesterday that appeared to be a fresh persistent slab.  Upon closer inspection of the debris, bed surface, and crown, we concluded it was an old wet slab that ran late in the warmup from water draining off of the rocks above.  The large hard slab failed on wetted depth hoar and took out the entire season's snowpack, so it's easy to mistake it for looking new from a distance.  

This area has seen less than half the storm snow and minimal wind transport compared to what I saw yesterday in the Ruby Range.  New slab development was lacking; our primary concern was managing for sluffing in the new and recent snow.  Great skiing conditions with easy-to-manage problems!

We observed one small collapse on a low-angle, northwest-facing slope at 11,000' involving this week's snow about 40 cm deep. Many dry loose avalanches ran naturally today.

Storm totals from this week are about 25 cm at the valley floor and 40 cm at 11,500'; fist hard.  Half of that fell today as low-density snow, and on sunnier aspects, there's a thin crust separating the two snow events.  One pit on an east aspect at 11,500' showed the storm snow bonded well to the March Meltdown crust, with no facets above it.  On the same aspect below treeline, we found facets above the crust, but with only 20 cm of low density snow above it.  

Crown investigation on a NW to WNW aspect at 11,400' showed a dry hard slab with numerous ice lenses throughout the slab along with a prominent ice lens at the ground, with pockets of dry depth hoar remaining between frozen ice.  Given the amount of water that moved into the snowpack here, I would be surprised to see a future persistent slab on a slope with similar characteristics.