Mt Jefferson

Quick report

At 10,200' the snow near the ridgeline was obviously wet and loose. I pushed some sluff downslope with little result. I took a short turn to push a larger sluff, which pulled with it a 2ft deep by 10ft wide section of wet snow immediately in front of me. After running for 20 feet this ripped out a larger slab of snow ~20' wide. The combined mass ran downhill for 100+ feet before stepping down 6" and ripping out a much wider slab ~50ft wide (max depth of this slab appeared to be ~3ft). The entire mass ran down the whole S face to flatter ground around 8800'. The bed surface was easily skiable and not particularly firm. No signs of instability observed on ascent. No rollerballs seen on any aspect. Boot penetration was up to knee deep near rocks above 9600' on the S face.

Weather

Cloud Cover

few

Warm but not as hot as expected. Snow was not obviously cooked.

Snowpack

Softened wind crust above isothermal snow was noticed on the S face, though with high variability along the ascent route up the SW ridge from 9600'-10200'.