Cayuse and Chinook Passes

It felt very much like a return to winter today. The storm slab issue wasn't hiding. Small slopes and uptrack tests made it clear, you could trigger an avalanche. Indeed, that was the case. We were able to intentionally trigger several slopes. These slides were typically confined to convex rollovers. On more planar slopes, they would crack, but the heavy snow just couldn't get moving. 

Breaking trail, short cracks would shoot off our skis for 1-2ft. Longer cracks were observed on convex rollovers and around tree wells.

New snow totals: 4500ft 8in (20cm), 5000ft 12in (30cm), 5500ft 14in (35cm)

The new snow was considerably dryer above 5000ft, but still generally heavy. Small slopes and uptrack tests constantly highlighted a layer failing at the base of the recent snow. On shaded and northerly aspects nearly 2ft (60cm) of snow sat over a very weak and still wet crust. On south and west aspects, the new snow was poorly bonded to a firm crust. 

We didn't inspect any of the layers below these crusts. 

Winds: Winds were surprisingly light in the terrain we traveled. Snow still hung in the trees. However, as we returned to Cayuse at 4600ft, the winds began to increase and drift snow in open areas. This may have been due to the funneling affects of the pass area. 

Wet Loose: We only observed one very small wet loose slide. However, rollerballs were common below ~5000ft