Quick report
It's always impressive how much the east flow helps winter in the Alpental Valley. We observed this today in snowpack depth ~170cm in Pineapple Basin and mere 40cm of splotchy snowpack in Melakwa valley. The inversion also kept a cold fog hanging below 4600' on the Alpental side, helping protect the thin lower elevation snowpack. Above 4600 the sun was out, softening the upper 10-15cm above the JDI on solar aspects. Despite 50 degree temps shaded aspects barely softened. The best skiing was on recently softened solar aspects, before they got too mushy and planer shaded aspects later in the day. We skinned across Snow Lake staying close to the shore. It added about 15mins to not go directly across. There is a solid layer of ice 10 cms down covered by a variable slush layer. At times we were on top of this slush and at times are skis sank into the soup, keeping us close to the edge.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5
- Aspect
- NE
- Elevation
- 5600 ft
Appeared to start as a glide off of some steep planer rocks and then entrained more wet snow. Freshest debris we saw on our tour, perhaps 48-72hours old.