Ferndale Slides

We found generally stable early spring conditions today. The only avalanche problem we observed was very small wet loose avalanches on sun-heated south and west facing slopes in the afternoon. These avalanches were slow-moving and did not entrain additional mass as they moved downhill. We also observed a couple of natural D1 wet loose avalanches that occurred in the last several days. 

Upper elevation north aspects still hold dry, recycled powder. Other areas have surface sun crusts of varying thicknesses. The crusts are supportable on south aspects and provided decent corn skiing today after some melting. 

We dug a snowpit on a southwest aspect at 7000 ft and found a very well bonded snowpack with no layers of concern. The total snow depth was 210 cm (83"), and there was a supportable 10 cm thick melt freeze crust at the surface. There was an unreactive crust buried 70 cm deep. Stability tests produced no results (ECTX). 

We did not observe any cracking or collapsing today but did observe crowns from two old slab avalanches. One was on an east aspect at around 7500 ft and appeared to be an old D1.5 wind slab. The other was larger and older, around 200 ft wide, and on a west aspect at around 7600 ft near the Swan crest. I suspect it was from the natural avalanche cycle in late February, around 2/22/23.