Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Confied to wind loaded pokets on leeward slopes above 7500 ft
Weather
- Air Temp
- Above Freezing
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 8-10 cm above 7500 ft
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Beautiful clear and calm day to be out and about. The sun felt warm, even in the alpine.
Snowpack
On Wednesday we traveled in the Timberline area and found 3-4 inches of new snow above 7500 ft. This new snow helped improve travel conditions at upper elevations, but we still found icy travel in scoured areas. Having traction and a self-arrest tool was still helpful. Below 7000 ft recent rain events continue to melt out the already shallow snowpack.
Tuesday's strong, consistent SW winds certainly left its mark on upper elevation leeward slopes. Along the upper White River Canyon, we found wind deposits to be 6-15 inches deep. We observed some isolated cracking but generally found these slabs to be stubborn and gaining strength with the warm temperatures.
The warm, sunny skies made the snow surface moist on solars below 8000 ft by the afternoon hours. We did observe one small, wet loose avalanche on steep, south-facing slopes in the old chute directly below rock and cliff bands. However, the bigger hazard in these areas was the chucks of rime shedding off of sunny cliffs.