Anthony lakes

I limited by exposure to avalanche terrain, knowing the most obvious signs of instability cracking, collapsing and whumphing would likely not be present.  It's a good reminder for all of us, that if you don't know what type of snowpack structure you're traveling on or around you're exposure is increased.  Mother Nature is screaming at us to go home on certain days, but on other days, the clues are more limited.  

When your uncertainty increases, your best bet is to increase your margins and look for simple terrain.  

The warm weather we have coming over the next few days is noteworthy.  Any snowpack doesn't like sudden change, and sometimes a warming event can awaken sleeping dragons that have become dormant in the snowpack.  If you see signs of warming snow including roller balls and pinwheels it's time to back off those steep objectives and look for simple terrain.  

I dug two snowpits to evaluate the upper 4' of the snowpack and to look for the persistent slab related to the 2/1 buried weak layer.  Both snowpits were on North aspects, one on the lower flanks of Lee's Peak and the second on the lower flank of Gunsight Mountain between 7,600-7,750'.  A mixed bag of test results is a good reminder the structure of the snowpack is often more important than the results of a test.  Both pits had similar characteristics: a consolidated slab sitting above a layer of weak faceted snow and a stout crust acting as a bed surface.  This is the same setup that resulted in the fatal avalanche on March 6 on Gunsight Peak.