Leavitt Lake

As we rode up to Leavitt Lake we noticed a natural point release on Big Easy. New snow and wind-blown snow led us to believe that wind slabs could be a problem today. When we rounded the corner to Koenig Lake we noticed a larger natural release (wind slab on an east aspect in complex terrain in the Alpine). We dismounted the machines and got to work in the skin track expecting to find sensitive wind slabs in and above the treeline. We worked our way up to 10,000 ft and did not find wind slabs on the aspects we rode (East and South) We avoided the Alpine as there was active wind loading on ridges and fresh cornices above Leavitt Lake. Moving observations on the sleds and within the skin track did not produce propagation. Overall it felt like a healthy mid-winter snowpack around Leavitt Lake. In summary: new snow that fell this week produced a small-scale natural avalanche cycle, mostly wind slab with a few loose dry sluffs. The weather remained below freezing however the solar radiation is starting to get intense as we pull into the end of February. 

Signs of naturals that released this week, wind slab and some point release sluffs.