Quick report
Went on a mission to observe multiple aspects and find any parcels of soft snow or more likely shallow, windslabs trending unreactive. Started our tour by gunning to Skyscraper and skiing the short N shot off the saddle @4250'. The descent was variable with a thin wind slab eventually fading to square pow at ~3900'. Despite the minimal amount of snow available for transport we observed flagging at the ridgetop but it did not appear to be building any new windslabs. Looking for some sun, the group then skied the small SE face leading to the ridge separating Skyscraper and Martin Mine. On the up, we found more of our thin wind slab and even some melt freeze crust in areas of low snow. We dug a quick pit @3800' showing a mostly right side up structure and ECTX. Even as winds diminished, surface snow was showing no real signs of warming, aside from some brittle melt-freeze crusts in extremely shallow terrain around vegetation (see photo).
The down was more sporty riding with bits of the old wind slab chasing after you knocked loose between tracks. If you could avoid old tracks, we were able to ski down into the valley with soft surface conditions before beginning our tour up Martin Mine SE- E aspect. Martin was more of the same soft snow lasting until ~3500 before the thin slab began. Nearing the top ~4200 between switchbacks you could pry the slab loose, which could knock the person below off their feet. However, the slab broke apart easily and showed no signs of propagation. The ski down from this location was less grabby than one would expect, but still more of the same. We eventually made it to the soft snow line and had joyous turns back to the cars. One pertinent negative from today was the total lack of sun effect despite traveling through steep southerly terrain mid-afternoon.
Many pertinent negatives today despite the sun and warmth in town it had no effect of the snow and it felt quite cold in the mountains. While we did observe wind transport, no new slabs seemed to be forming. We noted no new avalanches in the last 24 hours. And the only cracks that formed were between switchbacks after strong kicks down the fall line during some rough trail breaking.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Cold and clear. Any wind transport seemed to be sublimating and the sun was not affecting the snowpack.
Snowpack
The alpine was thoroughly covered in the ~1-2'' windslab formed March 20th. While you could pry the slab off between switch backs in isolated locations it proved stubborn to unreactive. We dug a pit @3800' on a SE aspect on the ridge between Skyscraper and Martin Mine. The new slab rested on a thin layer of facets above the old pencil hard slab before leading to a right side up structure until the depth hoar 30↓. We observed ECTX in this location.