Quick report
Very challenging travel conditions and unstable slopes. The amount of rapid precipitation and inconsistent temperatures have been adding to the current instability trend. Deep trenching warfare and soaked garments are the only reward when there is too much snow to move in. With such rapid snowfall rates the instability was rising exponentially. Depending on your elevation the avalanche problems were a mix bag. 4000' was the primary rain/snow line leaving Longmire with a heavy slushy mix that was over the boots. At 5200 there was 30" of new snow in the last 24 hours, it was dry but heavy. During Wednesday a period of above freezing temperatures brought a large dose of rain, which refroze as a new icy slick sliding surface that now has over 35" of new storm snow on top of it.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 32
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- 2800
- Recent Snowfall
- 76
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Intense snowfall rates above S5 for time periods. Moderate winds with blowing snow and irregular directions, swirling at times. Consistent temperature around 32F degrees.
Snowpack
Copious amounts of snow have fallen on the middle & upper elevations of Mount Rainier, somewhere between 50-60", halting our normal operations while the plows concentrate on the road corridor. High winds and fluctuating temperatures have stressed the snowpack forming new slabs and crusts. The previous persistent weak layers are now buried by over a meter of snow and are stubborn to react at the current time, at the locations we could see. On Wednesday 3/11 the temperatures at Paradise rose above freezing, allowing rain to fall and refreeze into a new unsupportable crust with moist grains below. In our test location we observed a 6" layer of 1F hard snow that seems more bonded to the icy crust, allowing compression tests to repeatedly fail above this layer with moderate force. The interface was simply a one-step change in hardness, but it left a resistant planar fracture in our repeated tests. No ECT propagation.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1 R1
- Type
- WL
- Aspect
- NW
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 4250 ft
New snow coupled with rain and warmth caused this steep slope to ooze a loose wet avalanche above the road to Paradise. Small in stature but heavy and powerful, this avalanche could steer you into unintended and consequential terrain