Three guardsmen
Yukon
jeffmoskowitz , Thursday 11th April, 2024 7:20PM
It seems like today maybe was a transition from a honeymoon phase of stability over the past few weeks, into a more dynamic winter to spring snowpack. The reasons we discussed were new snow accumulation, mid-day warming, strong solar radiation and the development of a weak layer. We felt confident overall but backed off from steep terrain where a shallow snowpack existed around rocks, where we could most likely trigger a slide. Our layer of concern was a a double crust, crust-facet combo weak layer down 30-50cm that propagated in an extended column test at 1200m.
On the tour, we evaluated the crust(s) located down 30-50cm. One quick test pit at 800m revealed ECTX. However, higher up at 1200m a more pronounced double crust could be felt with a ski-pole probe. We dug down and ran two extended column tests both with ECTP30 down 50cm that failed on 1-2mm facets between the two crusts.
Source: Avalanche Canada MIN
