Silver Sands

Very cold but bluebird day in Silver Sands today. It started out quite cold (-30) in the parking lot, but warmed up considerably in the sunshine on the mountain. We took the low trail back to the 5 Cabins meadows, and found amazing untouched powder in the meadows and creeks. Our pit was in the trees looking for layers of concern reported in other areas, and we found a whole shit sandwich of ice crusts, facets and storm snow. Despite this, for the moment, it remains quite well consolidated. We found ice crusts down approximately 30 and 60 cm, with facets under both that reacted CTH22-25 planar failures, but couldn’t get either to propagate in an Extended Column test. We did see a natural avalanche, a couple days old, that appeared to have been triggered by a cornice in the storm slab of the last few days. These layers don’t seem to be an issue right now, but we will be keeping a close eye on them in the days ahead. Stay warm!