Quick report
There was not much of a reason to go into avalanche terrain today given steady rain and wet, sloppy snow conditions. The likelihood of seeing another wet avalanche occur was low, but they are too unpredictable to be able to say which cliffs and slopes would shed and which wouldn't. Many glide cracks and perched blocks in steep, rocky terrain. Beware of debris chunks and glide cracks barely covered by new snow when snowfall returns to low and mid-elevations.
Most avalanches looked more than 24 hours old, but there were more than a few fresh-looking debris piles and dirt streaks below cliffs and other steep terrain holding snow.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Rain Elevation
- +6000'
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Cloud deck above 8000' lowering through the morning. Steady, moderate rainfall starting mid-morning with increasing south winds. Rain transitioned to snow at mid-elevations in the afternoon.
Snowpack
Not very exciting. Moist or wet layers and crusts of rain-affected snow from the surface down +100cm, likely to the ground. All layers well-bonded. Probing revealed no hard crusts below pit depth. HS around Austin Pass still hanging in there at 150-200cm. Low elevations lack much snow below 3800'. Upper elevation, alpine terrain has started to accumulate new snow. Boot pen was 50-100cm in the soft, wet snow. The surface crust was mostly ski-supportable.
Avalanche
Numerous wet avalanches of all types, at all elevations. Most looked to have released during the main rain even overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning, but fresh debris was easy to find. The most recent activity appeared limited to a few glide avalanches and snow blocks shedding from cliffs.