Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
- Collapsing
- isolated
Frequency and size of snowpack collapses continue to decrease, gradually. Collapses generally traveled less than 100 feet or so, though some larger collapses still seemed to affect starting zone sized areas, shaking trees >1' in diameter.
Weather
Thin haze of high clouds gradually burned off throughout the day. Temps stayed sensibly cool all day long, with periodic light breezes blowing out of the W.
Snowpack
Surface complexity continues to increase. We added a new coat of SH last night, this extended to the highpoint of my travels around 10,000'. Underneath this, you'll find variably stiff crusts with small facets on either side on solar slopes. On direct solars this crust is nearly supportable. The crusts becomes less robust as you wrap around to the solar margins. On shaded slopes, the freezing rain/ambient temp crusts that formed on the evening of 1/22 is present up to 10,000', now buried under ~5cm of PP.
Slab overlying 1/6 is 45-50cm thick and quite dense. The lower half of this slab grades from 1F+ to P- at the base. A pit at 8,900' on a NE aspect returned ECTP 21 and 24 and CPST 22 and 25/100 both to END, all down 45-50cm.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5
- Aspect
- W
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 7400 ft
I observed several very large avalanches in the N Fk of the Big Wood, and further south on the headwall at the head of Eagle Creek. I also observed several smaller, apparently recent avalanches that failed in steep, middle-elevation terrain above the N Fk of the Big Wood.