Quick report
The past several days have been warming, and today hovered around freezing. Skies were blue and sun shone on the slopes of Mount Willard. Low winds.
Avalanche
My partner and I intended to climb LHMW and The Cleft on the east face of Mount Willard, but we decided to approach Cinema first to get eyes on. Along the approach looking up into the woods, we saw lots of pinwheels and rollerballs. Throughout the day we paid attention to snow conditions and signs of avalanches, both because we were concerned and seeing evidence of the warming/sun affecting the snowpack and for practice. At the base of Cinema, we saw evidence of what seemed like a very small wet loose slide. We didn’t climb Cinema so no further info there. (Pic 1) Then we climbed the steep approach to Lower Hitchcock Gully. At the base, we saw what also seemed like debris from a very small wet loose slide, though it was harder to tell for certain. (Pic 2) In a safe area off to the side of the base of Hitchcock and its approach, we did a hand shear test. This showed a strong over weak structure with the weak layer of crystal-like snow about 6 inches down. We proceeded with caution to traverse over to Left Hand Monkey Wrench. On the traverse below the big wide rock face, we saw evidence of a recent small wet loose avalanche triggered from a point up near the rock, likely from snow melting off. (Pic 3) We cautiously traversed the slope, then did another hand shear in a safe zone. This did not reveal a strong over weak structure. Finally, we reached the base of LHMW and in a safe area did a third hand shear test. This resulted in a strong over weak structure with the weak crystallized layer being about 12-14” deep. Overall, we noted evidence of warming and sun affecting the snow, but were not overly concerned and chose to proceed with caution throughout the day.