Alpental Valley

The warm and soggy day surprised us with better than anticipated surface conditions. Around 3-5cm of new snow over a soft but supportable crust made for decent skiing. While the surface snow and upper snowpack were quite moist, other than widespread rollerballs, we didn't see any larger wet loose avalanches by the time we exited the field at 11am. We didn't find enough new snow or winds for any fresh wind slab development, and with the warm temperatures and rain yesterday, older wind slabs are likely to be stubborn or unreactive. 

At 5150ft on a NE aspect, we found a total snow height of 320cm. 

The upper snowpack is generally moist, with rounded grains and multiple crusts. The most recent crust is still damp, and there is a favorable bond with the 5cm of new snow that fell overnight. Tilt test produced moderate results below a crust down 10cm. A thin crust down 60cm has rounded near surface facets over it and showed progressive propagation in an Extended Column Test, but we had to go beyond the bounds of the standard test for complete propagation. (ECTN 27, at over 30 hard hits from the shoulder, it finally propagated across the column) The Early February Crust (EFC) is buried around 70cm deep. There is still weaker snow overlaying the EFC, but the once faceted grains are rounded and produced no results in stability tests. 

Boot penetration was occasionally up to 30cm in the moist upper snowpack but was supportable to skis.