Quick report
We found a generally stable snowpack and no significant avalanche concerns. Small loose dry sluffs were a possibility in steep terrain running on crusts. The ~6" of new snow had added a bit to cornices but did not form slabs where we were.
No obvious signs of instability or recent avalanches.Weather
- Air Temp
- 15-20
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 13 cm since 3/28
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Periods of sun along the highway, but mostly cloudy and snowing in Smiley Ck. Snow accumulated 1-2 inches near Smiley Headwaters while we were there. Light, variable wind.
Snowpack
We found up to 6" of snow since March 28th. This sat atop crusts on all aspects except some norths above about 9,200'. New snow had formed some small additions to the large cornices, but we did not find any significant slab formation on any aspects. Crusts were rough and edgeable and somewhat soft on sunnier slopes.
We dug in a few locations to continue monitoring and mapping where meltwater made it during last week's warmup. Takeaways (8,900-9,000'):
- Meltwater from last week stopped above the dust layer (3/16) on N and NE. In these locations, the (3/12) layer is still dry, is getting harder to discern, and does not look like a weak layer that will act up when wetted in the next warm-up.
- A slight shift to ENE caused meltwater to penetrate through 3/12 and work its way at least a meter deep.
- (1/31) may be a bigger player in any significant warm-up this spring, at least in areas where the overlying slab hasn't completely squashed it out.
Avalanche
Observed some week-old gouging wet loose avalanches and a wet slab avalanche on the Smiley Ck side of Goat Rocks. No new avalanches.