Quick report
Crawling through the deadfall moat at the bottom of Wahoo got us great skiing on northerly and shaded aspects, mostly at mid elevations
- Our primary avalanche concern was slow- moving sluffs on slopes steeper than about 35*.
- We consistently found a thin weak layer above the late March melt-freeze crust. It's not that weak nor is the slab above that slabby at the moment.
- This layer made sidehilling and some skinning difficult.
- The snow surface above our high point at ~6600' looked wind-affected.
- ski crampons would be useful at low elevations.
- Despite a few bare spots, the road and trail that access Rescue Creek are in good shape.
Northerly slopes will hold good skiing tomorrow.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 1-40
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Cold. Could see my breath mid morning at the road, and at 1 pm at ~5500’. Light but cold NW wind. clear skies til early afternoon, then few/scattered.
Snowpack
New/recent snow above the 3/31 melt freeze crust:
- T-4” below ~4500’
- 4-8” 4500-5500’
- 8-14” above 5500’
Dry, mostly cohesionless snow on shaded slopes. Still that way late afternoon all the way to the floor of Rescue Creek on due N.
The top 1” got moist and quickly refroze on slopes exposed to the sun.
- Hand blocks/ shears consistently failed w a v. soft block and clean shear plan ~ 5 cm above the MF cr.
- Failure plane had some shiny, angular crystals visible to the naked eye (no loupe; day off) and was slightly moist. I suspect some faceting (Melt Layer Recrystallization).
Avalanche
L-ASc-D1.5-N in steep northerly mid elevation gully. Did not run fast, though it entrained a fair out of snow. L-N-D1-N x2 on steep, northerly mid elevation slope. Lots of point releases. Lots of debris from recent avalanche cycles, including a natural D3 on the main west facing run off the the Wahoo/ Cascadilla ridge. Another in the large slide path running into Rescue Ck from the Wahoo ridge. Debris from this slide ran to the floor of Rescue Creek. Both of these were at mid elevations. The slopes above the tarn in Cascadilla are essentially a debris field. Lots of debris lower in Cascadilla as well, partially covering the valley floor.