Quick report
Wind slabs were my primary avalanche problem observed on 3/20, as moderate winds from the SW were stiffening the surface snow.
No obvious signs of unstable snow were observed.Weather
- Air Temp
- 30
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 10
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
As per usual the front side of the mountain was windy, with snow drifting from the SSW winds. The backside being more protected had less wind effect, in the terrain with trees protecting the more open terrain features.
Snowpack
I dug a snowpit on an NE aspect at 5,500' and found 78 cm or a little over 2.5' of snow sitting above the rain crust from last Wednesday. The crust was stout (pencil to knife hard) and extended to the bottom of my pit. Overall at the one location I dug, the snowpack structure was pretty good, and I didn't observe any alarming results. My greatest concern with next week's extreme warmup is the stout rain crust the most recent storm snow is sitting on. This will be a prime bed surface and once melt water makes its way down to this layer the chances of Wet Slab avalanches will increase greatly. Unfortunately, this crust exists on all aspects and at all elevations.