Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
- Collapsing
- isolated
On the top of slopes exposed to the recent NE winds the snow had been scoured away, in some spots even exposing the slick 2/7 crust. Immediately in the lee of these locations there were hard wind slabs up to a foot thick. These tapered quickly downslope in more wind sheltered terrain. It was easy to find non-wind affected boot-top settled pow to ski. There was no sun crust on the low angle southerly slopes I travelled on. Thin wind slabs I encountered would crack in a minor way around ski turns. Observed no evidence of recent avalanches in nearby steep terrain. Heard two collapses: one in a shady alder field below 5000' near a creek, the other near the pit location on a SW aspect at approx. 5800'. Uncertain of how reactive the crust/weak layer combo is in other locations/aspects/elevations, but from the structure and the propagating test result, I chose to have fun on sub-30 degree slopes, enjoying the sunshine. 10-15cm recent wind slab cracked in a minor way in localized areas. Cutting above skin track produced stubborn failures below the wind slab. Heard two collapses: one in a shady alder field below 5000' near a creek; the other near the pit location at 5800', SW aspect, 25* slope.
Weather
- Air Temp
- below freezing
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- at least 30 cm
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Calm, clear/sunny, below freezing.
Snowpack
ECTP 15 in facets and surface hoar sitting on the thin 2/7 sun crust. 40 cm slab, mostly fist hardness, but increasing to one finger just above weak layer. 25* slope, SW aspect at approx. 5800', just east of WMR. Below the thin 2/7 crust, another weak, faceted layer is sandwiched above the stout and thick early February crust. Below that, generally one finger or pencil hardness until the approximately 10 cm of moist grains at the ground.