St. Regis Basin

Older glide cracks that had started earlier in the season and then were reburied are making an appearance again. Large chunks of cornice are falling, and rain runnels could be seen on every slope up to 6,800'.

In a short period during the month of March, the forecast zone received several feet of light snow. Things have changed rapidly, and we are now going on 3 days of above freezing temperatures, recent rain, sunshine, and mountain temperatures reaching nearly 60 degrees F. All of these components have aided in an abundance of meltwater running through the snowpack. On more south facing aspects, this meltwater can be seen pooling on previous crusts that are about 1 foot down, and also pooling in areas further down. This free water has created weaker grain to grain bonds and there is an elevated probability of triggering a slab avalanche on these more solar aspects - especially on slopes steeper than about 30 degrees. The water pooling was so significant, we could squeeze impressive amounts of water out of these layers. On a northeast aspect at a similar elevation, we found that the nsowpack was missing the preexisitng crusts and that instead of water pooling on crusts or interfaces, it had instead drained deeper into the snowpack- the previous cold snow seemed to help absorb the moisture like a sponge.