Peak 2

Wet snow avalanches were the most obvious problem today. Wet Loose avalanches were avoidable by steering clear of a mushy snowpack. Pooling of meltwater at several weak interfaces added Wet Slab uncertainty to the equation. Persistent weak layers exist in the upper 3' of the snowpack and produced clean shears in snowpits on shaded middle and upper elevation slopes. 

I dug in a couple of shaded, middle and upper elevation locations where the heatwave has had little effect on the overall persistent slab problem. In both pits (N @ 7,000, and NNW @ 8,900) I found a recent graupel layer (down 35 cm) and a surface hoar layer (down 55-65 cm). These layers returned a mix of ECTNs and ECTXs, but produced clean shears with non-standard loading and when prying on the column. The graupel layer produced dirty shears when I was in a similar zone on March 6th. (2/25) was down about 100 cm and returned ECTXs but did pop clean when prying on the blocks in both pits. 

Sunnier aspects were in various stages of crusted and melting depending on aspect and wind exposure. One pit on a S @ 8,000' showed slushy meltwater pooling at a number of weak interfaces throughout the 130 cm snowpack before draining to the ground. I found a ski (not boot) supportable unconsolidated wet snowpack right up to the top of Peak 2 at 9,500' on a SW face. I could produce giant roller balls on a SE-face at 8,500'.