Previous large avalanche on early December layer

Mountain Conditions Report

<p>We were up in Simpson Bowl today for the first day of an AST2 course. Due to last season's closure for a denning grizzly, it had been two years since I was last up there. I noticed a significant difference as soon as we crested the creek into the hanging valley: where there used to be a 20-30 year old gladed forest of sub-alpine fir, it was now open all the way to the bowl. </p> <p>We dug some snowpits at 2175 metres to investigate the early December layer down ~90 cm, and found significant avalanche debris in the crust/facet combo layer: now I know where those trees went...</p> <p>Not much reactivity on this layer with multiple compression tests. At this elevation most of the precip in early Dec likely fell as snow or sleet, and a sz 3 to 4 avalanche had cleaned it up.</p> <p>We directly observed three sz 1 windslabs high above on E and SE aspects in the alpine at ~2500 metres that stopped mid track. Temps were inverted, we recorded -2.5C at the pit so extrapolated it may have been close to 0C in the ALP.</p>