Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
- Collapsing
- specific
We got a reasonable feel for the snowpack during a tour that encompassed all aspects except Northeast through Northwest on Saint Mary. We found about 20 cm of snow since Feb. 14th, and another 40 cm on top of the high pressure layer. We had a lot of isolated collapsing on all aspects. It appeared the collapsing was failing on thin facets on the high pressure layer. Collapsing was predominantly in stiff wind pockets. We dug several pits on all aspects and did not find buried surface hoar. In general, on aspects, the Feb 12th layer was failing at moderate ECT scores, and the high pressure interface didn't produce results. The one exception was an ECTP13 on a SW aspect around 8,500 feet. We saw a smattering of natural avalanches of all flavors from the past two weeks, however it doesn't appear the area went through any kind of large scale natural cycle since the end of dry January.