Quick report
- Cracking
- widespread
- Collapsing
- widespread
Instability of the snowpack was observed before even leaving the parking lot. With dense heavy snow on top of a soft layer cracks appeared on every bank that was disturbed. New snow acumulated before 9 am was approximately 12 to 18 inches with continued moderate to heavy at times snowfall Weather was barely below freezing at 7000-8000 ft. Wind was light with 15 mph gust below treeline Snowpack tests proved instability with failure within the first 7 taps with the wrist on the CT and collapsing within 3-5 taps on the ECT. We traveled extremely cautiously especially with seeing continous evidenced of natural slides along the highway 4 trail and made our way back sooner than originally planned due to the continued loading of an unstable snowpack. Widespread instability to all aspects at all elevations observed.
Avalanche
All aspects on slopes equal or greater than 30° Above treeline, at treeline and below Natural and triggered. Triggered types included snow bombs off of trees and some motorized vehicles. Observed slides were relatively small, not large enough to burry a person but with pour visibility and staying out of large avalanche paths the snow was extremely unstable.