Quick report
We toured up Magnum to 3,000' trying to find where the crust disappeared. We also were trying to find weak layers in the snow and test to see how likely it could be for a human to trigger. A stout crust with 2-5" of snow followed us to ~2,600'. From there it started to break up and by 3,000' we could not feel it. The crust seemed stout enough to discourage weak layers from failing which felt reasuring, but the snow on top slide easily and we kicked off small dry loose avalanches on the steeper faces. Something to look out for if there is more snow over this crust especially in gullies. The ride down was great until we reached the low snow line (~3" fresh snow on bare ground.) The alder schwack out was predicible and fine.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- light
- Rain Elevation
- 3,000'
- Recent Snowfall
- Trace
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
It was a beautiful day to be in the mountains. Occasional clouds and blue skies. Calm to light winds for our entire trip. We saw occasional winds kick up near high ridgetops loading south faces. In the afternoon low clouds began creeping up in the valley from Turnagain Arm.
Snowpack
The stout crust thinned around 2600'. We dug a pit at 3000' on a NW aspect. There were 2 thin crusts sandwiched together underneath a windslab around a foot deep. We also saw a weak layer 6" deep that looked like decomposing snowflakes. Neither the crust nor the weak layer gave concerning results (ECTN13 6" down). The snow surface was faceting making it slide easily on the crust on the way down.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2 R1
- Type
- U
- Aspect
- SE
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 3600 ft
New avalanche on Fiddlehead. Refer to avalanche observation.