East Beckwith

The snowpack has become significantly quieter on low angle terrain compared to deep zone observations last weekend.  The average snow depths where we traveled were 120 to 150 cm, and the Christmas slab is about 30 to 45 cm thick.   It's evident, looking at recent crowns and slope characteristics, that start zones have a shallower snowpack.   We weren't able to safely access those slopes for feedback, other than a few small rollovers below treeline, which were also quiet.  In this area, it appears that the very soft slabs (F to F+) are making a temporary truce with the fist-hard facets below treeline on northerly aspects.  I suspect it's a different story on east and west aspects, where thin crusts amplify the hardness change at that interface.  All three of the avalanches that were triggered above Kebler Pass Road yesterday were on east aspects that likely have a thin crust above the facets.  Windloaded slopes have more abrupt hardness changes at the December dryspell interface, from 1F slab to fist hard facets.  Snow profiles on low-angle slopes showed improved stability tests and rounding facets (~1mm, F+).  This structure looks a lot better than the crowns that I've investigated recently, where facets were larger (2mm), weaker (F), and in a shallower snowpack (<90 cm) due to the Thanksgiving cycle.  

We triggered one large collapse while traveling across a wind exposed, shallow terrain feature near treeline. The collapse ran into deeper parts of the slope a couple hundred feet.