Tumalo

We toured up Tumalo today to have a look into the bowl. Snowfall was moderate, with several inches of light powder on top of the rain crust from Thursday (or Friday?). Wind was strong from the west with heavy wind loading below the ridge and the usual cornice growth. We dug a pit just below the ridge on far skier's left (north) where there was no cornice, just as it rounded off began to get steep (probably 25 degrees). Our CT column fractured upon cutting (no taps needed) with a clean surface at 35cm (right at the rain crust). Our ECT fractured and propagated at ECT9 (wrist) and propagated most of the way across, again at 35cm. Just needed a slight tug to get the block to slide on a clean surface (see photo); on steeper ground this would have slid easily on its own. The wind loaded zone below the ridge was accumulating depth at about 3-4x the normal snowfall amount elsewhere on the mountain, and wind slab formation there was textbook. Although the powder was light and deep, we opted not to ski the bowl or access locally connected terrain below the ridge, and instead took a couple laps on the west side in the mellow trees. At least 4-5 other parties or individuals had done the same, which shows proper restraint on a classic storm day like today. Of note: the persistent weak layers that have been discussed recently (down about 60cm in this spot) were quite evident and fractured with just a bit of extra tapping after the upper slab rolled off. They may be localized, but were definitely still present.

Quick report