Copper Mtn

We found 1-2' of recent snow. We observed small natural slabs that released early in the week. While we observed only minor cracking, we believe we could have found triggerable storm slabs in steep, shadier terrain.  

Cracking observed in switchbacks on N-facing slopes. The failure layer here was a storm interface down ~40 cm where rain and wet snow transitioned to dry snow early in the storm. It was also the layer we suspect was responsible for the human-triggered slab avalanche and some small naturals that occurred earlier in the week.

We found 35-55 cm of snow since (4/10), insulating well-drained but wet snow below. Top down:

• 15-25 cm of new snow fell over the past 24 hours, with increasingly low-density snow near the surface as temperatures dropped.
• 3 cm melt-freeze crust on sunnier slopes, dense 15-20 cm interval on shaded slopes
• Weak interval around a wet snow/dry snow transition. We believe this was the layer responsible for the human-trigger and small naturals we observed on the N. side of Copper.
• Heavy, dense snow from rain/wet snow which began (4/10). The interface was well bonded.

Short windows of sunshine wetted the surface on sunnier slopes, triggering rollerballs. We found little to no wind affect in the low-density snowfall from the previous 24 hours.