Quick report
Green Butte Ridge and Sun Bowl Tour: It's a good old-fashioned mixer out there. Up to 8,500 feet, above treeline is primarily wind affected, some areas breakable, some supportable. Near treeline offered the smoothest and best skiing for a brief moment. Below treeline becomes heavy and styrofoam like, turns requiring a pre-turn preload to jump free of the snow and change course. Some fun, funk and skunky skiing. Red flags of avalanche danger were not observed. Firm, wind board snow surfaces above treeline may provide a smooth bed surface for new snow load on Saturday.
Signs of unstable snow were hard to come on our tour. We did not observe any red flags of avalanche danger. The recent Valentine's Day storm brought a fat foot of new snow to the area. This new snow has settled out well, having about two days to do so.Weather
- Air Temp
- 28
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- 5100
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
A moody day with decent visibility, but flat light. High clouds kept the sun at bay; low fog crept through the valleys. Wind was calm below treeline, and light near/above, blowing out of the southeast. Temps reached the high 20s to low 30s. No precipitation occurred.
Snowpack
Wind slabs were the problem target today. We dug into a hard slab at ~8,500 feet on a southerly facing aspect. Informal shovel shears could produce clean sheers with hard force on a layer just above the old/new snow interface, but more formal column tests were stubborn to unreactive. Hollow wind slabs are widespread, but well glued to the old snow surface. A few small cornices lurk along some ridges. Storm flow has been primarily south to north. Cornices were unreactive.
Avalanche
Avalanches were not observed today.