June BC

We set out in June to get eyes on high alpine start zones, looking for signs of wind loading and recent avalanche activity. We saw much less wind loading earlier in the day, and more dry loose activity within the new storm snow, than anticipated. Much  of the high alpine was in and out of the clouds all day, and we ventured towards BTL/NTL terrain fairly quickly after getting clear visibility for a good while to assess. 

We were looking to gain information on how the new snow is bonding to the old snow at the interface. We looked for the wind board interface, facet interface, and MF crust interface. In protected northerly slopes, we found buried facets at the interface and got ECTN results and CT M BRK and CT H RP results. NW winds picked up substantially around 1 pm in NTL and ATL terrain, and we observed moderate amounts of blowing snow where we were at the time. 

Snow below 9000' in the trees was beginning to transition by the time we descended. Temperatures were cold, but the air was very humid, and riding felt very sticky near 8000'. 

 

We observed numerous D1 dry loose avalanches, and witnessed a natural D1 dry loose occur on a high alpine feature, NE, at around noon. We observed skier tracks with significant sluffing in near and above treeline terrain on E - N facing terrain. Multiple human triggered avalanches were reported, up to D2.