Avalanche

Skyline, norths and into Tye valley

John BarkhausenStevens Pass
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Quick report

In the morning, and on shady aspects all day, snow stayed pretty cold and fluffy and fantastic. By about noon on anything solar, surface snow began heating up and getting wet. And by about 2pm, globbing on the bottom of my skis became a big problem. I dug a pit right around the top of the north chute. Height of the storm was about 70cm, boot pen was 60cm, and ski pen was 30cm. No concerning results came from the few tests I did, and the only real concern I had was with the new/old snow interface. I did find an old faceted layer, but the snow around it was shockingly wet, and I didn't see any results, so I sort of wrote it off. More details are on the pit diagram. I saw fewer signs of wind loading and effect than expected. There was some slight texturing at the top of skyline, but no cornices or slabs. Across the valley I could see pretty clear evidence on the south side of Lichtenberg though.

Avalanche

Many dry loose slides, mostly caused by tree bombs, hot rocks, and sharp turns.