Observation: Catherine's Pass

Photo tour of upper LCC and BCC. With a peek into AF. I wanted to show coverage before the next storm starting Thursday/Friday.

1. South Facing LCC from Superior to Emma Ridges

2. Sunset Peak in upper BCC

3. Catherine's Pass East facing and Rocky Point

4. Rocky Point Avalanche Crown visible.

5. Upper Dry Fork of AF

6. Moguls on So Long

7. Catherines ECT and Profile wall

Depending on aspect you could find up to 12" of settled storm snow from the last event ending Monday. On the Northerly aspects in upper LCC/BCC there is variable HS of 50-90cm.  On South and West it is only the setteled storm snow with lots of bare rock outcroppings exposed.

 

I only spent time digging one profile on a North Aspect at 10,100' to get an average structure. I then probed around looking for the depth and distribution of the most concerning crust/facet combo that folks from around the canyon have been tracking. In my profile it was down about 55cm.  To my surprise, I did not get propagating results in ECT or sudden results in CT on this layer. But there are plenty of obs from many trusted sources indicating propagation in tests at similar aspects and elevations at this layer interface. The slab characteristics were quite soft here and there was no evidence of wind effect.