Tamarack Peak

The wind proved to be the most notable feature of today. It had obviously blown snow around all last night and continued to move snow today. The winds did not limit themselves to the upper elevations either. Evidence of blowing snow existed in all of the terrain we explored today, from traditionally sheltered areas below treeline to the usually windy spots along ridges. We found a widespread dense wind slab that ranged in thickness depending on wind exposure. It rested on top of softer, weaker snow and gave the conditions a bit of a "punchy" feel.

We saw two wind slab avalanches: one natural on an open slope below the east ridge of Tamarack and one skier-triggered below the ridge on a cross-loaded section of the Prolateriate. Tests on a near-treeline test slope also yielded unstable results (ECTP 11 down about 20-25 cm). Both avalanches and the tests failed when the dense wind slab broke away from the softer snow below it.

The wind and snow had also formed very large and very fragile cornices along most of the ridges in the area. We kicked a few cornices above test slopes, and while they failed easily, they did not produce results on the small slopes below them.

We chose to avoid any larger avalanche terrain or any terrain with consequences. 

We saw one natural avalanche and one skier-triggered avalanche, both in wind-loaded terrain. Cornices failed easily with ski kicks several feet from their edges, but when the large cornice pieces fell on the test slopes below them, they did not trigger additional cracking or failures. We did not test larger, steeper slopes. We also triggered some small shooting cracks on wind-loaded test slopes.