Stevens Pass: Skyline Ridge

Our goals were to get out and assess the most recent round of fresh snow for instabilities and perform stability tests on lingering weaknesses from older interfaces earlier in the weak. It was a pleasant day with intermittent snow and nice light through the clouds. Surprisingly, there was little wind at the ridgeline, and minimal stiff wind drifts were present. The wind slabs we did find below the ridge were shallow, soft, and stubborn. While we identified small crowns from natural avalanches overnight, our test slopes produced minimal results. We identified several weaker interfaces within the recent snow that kept us on more conservative terrain. We avoided the steeper wind-loaded slope just below the ridge, choosing lower-angle entrances into the bowl. Overall, we enjoyed soft snow with great ski conditions. 

A small natural cycle of D1 wind and storm slabs occurred overnight. We found that most test slopes in sheltered and wind-loaded terrain produce only minor isolated cracking.

From 4000-4200ft, there is 10-20cm of snow from the last 24hrs, with more in open areas and less under the thick tree canopy. Under the new snow is a breakable melt-freeze crust 2-3cm thick over wet snow. 

This crust fades away between 4200ft and 4500ft, and there is just settled storm down to the Solstice Crust.

At 5000ft, I found just over 8 feet of snow, with about 4 feet over the Solstice Crust. The bond with the Solstice Crust was favorable. There were a few weaker interfaces within the snow from December 21st. Down 20cm the 24hr snow total failed with moderate force in shovel tilt tests with Q2 shears. Below that, a few interfaces were just slightly softer layers of decomposing fragments. One of these interfaces down 50cm produced sudden results but did not propagate across the whole column in an extended column test (ECTN 13). However, the block slide cleanly off the column with little force. The overall snowpack structure seems favorable and is beginning to strengthen.