Quick report
Glide avalanches occurring during the day, along with numerous glide cracks on the southern half of the pass.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 30
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Rain Elevation
- 1500
- Recent Snowfall
- 30
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Temps right around freezing, and it felt pretty humid! Overcast skies with some occasional valley fog at road elevation. Occasional light NE winds at ridgeline, otherwise calm.
Snowpack
900' (parking lot): Stout ski supportable crust over a saturated, 30cm deep snowpack. 1300': Thin layer of soft snow over a thin unsupportable crust. Height of snow (HS) ~60cm. The crust really thinned out quick! 1800': Dry soft snow surface, progressively harder (right side up) with depth. HS 60-90cm. The entirety of the last storm fell as snow at this elevation and above! The Sunburst ridge showed signs of wind effect during the recent storms, with some areas scoured down nearly to the ground. Wind slabs were small, still very soft, and just along the ridgeline where we travelled. It looked like a few glides on the SW face of Sunburst were opening slightly since the storm, as well. Probing at 3100' off the winded ridge generally found 100-150cm of total snowpack, with a single crust consistently up 20-30cm from the ground regardless of snowpack depth. A snowpit at this location found the crust to be very well bonded to snow above it, with a thin softer layer of small facets below it (see structure below). The lower half of the snowpack - including the crust/facet layer - was moist at this location, and we had no results in that layer in CT, ECT tests!
Avalanche
Five glide avalanche releases in the vicinity of Sunburst since the storm ended yesterday - one on Seattle Ridge roughly across from Cornbiscuit, two in the Library, and two below Tincan Proper that released mid-afternoon today (see picture below). Numerous cracks were apparent on the southern half of Seattle Ridge, Tincan/Library, down towards Lynx Creek, and on the southerly slope of Sunburst as well!