Salmon La Sac

We got out to assess the impacts of the recent storm, look for any avalanche activity, and observe new interfaces and older persistent weak layers in the snowpack. It was a deep day in the mountains! Snowmobile travel was fun but challenging. The wind effect on the new snow actually made trail-breaking on skis easier. We saw no signs of instability while traveling, but snowpack tests produced unstable results. We crossed one small path of avalanche debris out of a steep forested area that likely ran during Monday evening as temperatures warmed. We could not see any other crowns or avalanches on the surrounding terrain, they were likely filled in by the additional storm snow. We did not get up to the ridge, but the winds were moderate, likely transporting snow at mid and upper elevations. 

A small avalanche had ran down onto the old forest road at some point during Monday's storm.

There is a consistent 70cm of new snow down to the snowpark. Although at lower elevations, the snow was much denser than above 3500ft. Steep test slopes only produced moderate cracking beneath our skis within the recent storm snow.

At 4600ft, I found around 70cm of new snow with a thin melt-freeze crust from a brief warmup midstorm buried 45cm down. This new melt-freeze crust showed potential for propagation in a snowpack test (ECTP11, SP). The solstice crust is buried 85cm deep, and a layer of weak, faceted snow beneath the Solstice Crust failed and propagated (ECTP13, SC).

The extreme winds drifted snow well down into forested areas, and we found wind-pressed surfaces with little ski penetration in open terrain. In sheltered terrain, the new snow was unconsolidated. By the time we were leaving, trees had begun to shed snow, and rollerballs were present on sunny slopes.