Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
- Collapsing
- isolated
A few obvious signs of instability were found near ridgelines on south and southeast-facing slopes with additional wind-loading into the terrain.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- light
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Zach would call today's cloud observations "variable". That may not be a professional term, but it sure would be accurate. Clear sky alternating with a full overcast sky. Snow transport during the day was light where we traveled, while plumes of blowing snow continued to be visible off other high points.
Snowpack
The wind continues to decrease snow quality and change conditions compared to last week. The northerly facing avalanche paths off the top of AMR were wind-effected with the typical cross-loading patterns in areas like Big Chute. Wind-protected areas still skied well. East bowl was similar, with some good snow in the wind-sheltered locations, but the middle elevation of this terrain was cross-loaded and holding hard slabs in each concave terrain feature. The amount of wind effect and hard slab creation has notably changed since last weekend. We also observed several collapses and shooting cracks near the ridgeline on the south-facing terrain. One hand pit produced clean shears on the crust that formed at the end of last week. There were also small facets above and below this crust. However, the wind-loaded snow didn't extend very far into the slopes below the ridgeline.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2 R2
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 10400 ft
One small wind slab on the backside of NW Bowl. A few details were also added to the old rider-triggered avalanche in East Bowl that is estimated to have occurred on 1/18.