Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
- Collapsing
- isolated
There was about 60 cm of low density new snow over a non-supportable crust. When stepping off skis, we sank well past hip depth. There was substantial wind, especially at ridgetop, from the West and Northwest that was rapidly moving snow. We observed isolated cracking and whumphing on ridgetop wind slabs (on terrain that wasn't steep enough to go anywhere). We performed a number of hand pits. Several of them (W and SE aspects) failed on isolation. Additionally, we dug a pit (N aspect, 4500 ft) and did some ECTs, more for our own education than anything else as we were not intending to ski anything over 30°. We got two ECTN7s that both failed on the new snow/crust interface right 60 cm down. Additionally, we had one ECTN14 that failed on an intra-storm layer about 30 cm down, and failed further at 21 taps on the crust 60 cm down. Again without propagation.
Avalanche
Avalanche occurred in a SE aspect at roughly 5200 ft. It likely slid sometime this morning, appearing to have occurred in a layer within the new storm snow. Unclear if it was natural or skier triggered as we did not see it slide. Also unknown if anyone was caught. I'd call it a small D2, as it likely could bury someone. I'd estimate 20-30 cm deep, and maybe 20 m across. See photo.