Quick report
While my findings are suggestive of a Persistant Slab problem in the area, I dont know enough about the zone, nor have I been tracking conditions well enough to add it to the list with any confidence. Additionally, I have limited experience with crust facet combos in Washington State and this was my first time touring at Blewett. If I had to venture a guess, I would say that the problem is currently somewhere between unreactive and stubborn. It could be found on either isolated or specific terrain features depending on the distribution of the crust and underlying facets. Finding the right terrain to initiate a Persistent Slab avalanche of significance in this zone seemed like it would be challenging. We did enjoy a nice shot of reasonably cold pow on the exit! It is worth keeping your head on a swivel for dead snags in this zone. We witnessed one come down spontaneously with very little wind and saw a couple quite recent downed snags further up the drainage. No observed signs of instability.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- N/a
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Windy, colder than expected. Winds died after about noon.
Snowpack
We performed a hasty profile at the coordinates listed in the observation. This was a sheltered WNW aspect at 5300ft. Snow height at the pit site was 110cm. Heights were quite variable throughout the zone. Notable test results; CT13 sudden collapse, resistant planar at a crust facet combo down ~50cm. ECTP12 on the same layer. The block readily slid on the bed surface. The weak layer was a 10-13cm thick layer of 1-2mm facets under a melt freeze crust. I dont know the date or cause of the warming event. Best guess is it’s a rain crust, widely distributed, and over a similarly faceted layer on colder aspects and terrain features.