New snow and old avalanches at Hankin

AvCan Northwest , Wednesday 22nd January, 2025 6:15PM

Today we skied at Hankin. We observed two avalanches that occurred last week. There was a size 3 avalanche in cabin bowl that initiated near ridge line and ran into the flats below the slope leaving a large debris pile. This avalanche ran on the early-December crust. We dug a snow pit in Cabin Bowl, a north aspect, at 1475m and found 180cm of snow. We did an extended column test and a compression test. We were not able to produce any results in either test. We then skied over to Morning Bowl, an east aspect, to check out the skier accidental avalanche that occurred over the weekend. We skinned up to the lower crown line and found only 1-meter of snow with the early-December crust down 60cm from the snow surface. We found a 10cm-thick layer of facets above the early-December crust in which this avalanche failed. This layer of facets is thicker and softer in south facing morning bowl then in cabin bowl that faces east. There was light snow through the day and calm winds.