Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
We found localized cracking on slopes below 38 degrees on all aspects and elevations. We primarily skied southern aspects. The storm brought 12-14 inches overnight and it snowed at more than an inch an hour all day bringing another 8-9 inches. This six day storm has produced more than 45 inches of new snow. Moderate to high winds transported a lot of snow. Around Chute #5 the SW winds built a new wind whale that shot more than 15 meters into the chute. Our test results showed isolated wind slab storm slabs but we were not seeing propagation on the underlying PWLS or Persistent Slab. -We did kick off some impressive cornices.
Avalanche
Soldier Mountain Guides ran routes in overhead danger areas in our permit area. We ski cut several storm/Wind slab avalanches: D1- D1+ R1/R2. We saw reactivity on all slopes and elevations at or above 38 degrees. I spotted several wind slab/ Cornice fails on leeward aspects that released at D1 levels. Visibility was highly limited and we could not see outside our permit area to give a gauge on natural avalanches on steeper slopes. We threw some indicator shots on slopes greater than 36 degrees up to 45 degrees. They pulled out small D1 storm Slab slides.