Pete's North

Spent the afternoon touring up to treeline at Pete's North to track the distribution of the Valentines Day buried surface hoar weak layer that has been producing large human triggered avalanches in the area. We found very thin coverage at lower elevations and much better coverage above ~1500'. We dug many hand pits throughout the day and found it everywhere that we traveled. Throughout the day we triggered many large collapses in the buried surface hoar, one propagating as wide as 100' around us. Travel was challenging down low, but the skiing in the trees was great with the soft surface snow. Was a great day to enjoy low angle low consequence sunny pow.

Triggered many large collapses during the day from 1000' to 2000'. These collapses were the layer of large buried surface hoar failing under our weight. Some of the collapses were very wide, one spanning up to 100' out around us. Large glide crack opening up on the south end of Seattle ridge.

Dug several hand pits throughout the day tracking the distribution of the Valentines day buried surface hoar layer that has been responsible for many large human triggered avalanches in the area. We found the buried surface hoar buried under 6" of snow between 1000' and 1500'. Above 1500' we were finding the buried surface hoar under 12-18" of snow and well intact. We triggered many large collapses in the buried surface hoar while touring up to treeline. Some of the collapses were 50'-100' wide in propagation. We were finding the buried surface hoar everywhere throughout the afternoon, even on wind stripped terrain features at treeline. No formal pits were dug today.

Surface snow was nice and soft; dry in shaded areas and getting wet and crusty on solar aspects. Found small 1-2mm surface hoar growing on snow surfaces all the way to our high point of 2000'. Was a good day to ski low angle low consequence pow!