White Pass Backcountry: Gunsight Peak

Breakable crust made for challenging travel, but helped limit avalanche concerns. How high does it go? We never found the upper end by our high-point (6350ft). At lower elevations, the snowpack had yet to freeze. Instead, thin coverage and wet punchy snow was the norm. 

Even with very bad visibility we were able to make out debris piles from a number of larger slides in the Gunsight Peak area. Additional wet loose avalanches occurred on many cut-bankes between 3500-4000ft.

We found a nasty breakable crust that extended above our high-point (6350ft). The 2-3 in (5-8cm) crust was not ski nor boot supportable, but it was firm enough to prevent any loose wet issues in the middle elevation band. Underneath, you could still clearly distinguish dry snow from the recent storms (12/6-7 and 12/9).  Snowpack tests didn't show anything too concerning. The most consistent failure was at the 12/9 interface, where we found large (3-4mm) stellar preserved in the snowpack. 

Overall, snow coverage is better than anticipated in open terrain above 5500ft. Total snow depth (HS) was around 3-4 ft (1m), with about half of that being recent snow over the very prominent 12/6 interface. 

Down low, the snowpack was still thin, wet, and puncy.