Blackstone Glacier via Whittier

Quick report

Route up to and onto the ice field from Whittier is only accessible via the Horsetail Falls TH. Some soft snow, some icy spots. Generally it’s pretty challenging travel right now to get onto the ice field. Once onto the Whittier Glacier and points beyond, surface conditions are a mix of sastrugi, sun crusts, and 4-6” of soft snow. We didn’t observe any signs of recent avalanche activity. We dug a pit at 5,000’ on a NE aspect and found 6-10” of soft snow above a 1F wind slab over a knife hard slab. We didnot dig below the K-hard slab. ECTN23 10” down on 3/21 storm interface. It took some searching to find soft, non wind affected snow, but surprisingly it exists,bring xtra fuel! High clouds streaming in late in the day. Beautiful day to be in the ice field. Note: no signs of increased avalanche hazard, but there are plenty of other hazards when traveling via Glacier. Crevasse rescue gear and training is strongly advised! The snowpack is definitely low for late March, plenty of crevasse hazard.

Weather

Air Temp

24

Cloud Cover

few

Wind Loading

moderate

Rain Elevation

0

Recent Snowfall

0

Snow Avail For Transport

small smounts

NW wind in Whittier. Channeled wind in much of the terrain but we were able to find a few zones out of the wind.