Changing conditions

Observed an avalanche that appeared to have released earlier today or possibly late yesterday, as there wasn’t much new snow on the debris. It was difficult to interpret the situation with the uptrack: part of the track crossed on top of the debris, and there was an adjacent bootpack near the crown. This suggests it may have been triggered by a group approaching the feature, although a natural release is also possible. However, it seems unlikely that people would bootpack right beside the slab when most of the upper couloir (steeper) had not slid. The slab looked to be 20 cm or more of denser snow over a crust on this south aspect, with what appeared to be facets above the crust. I’m posting this as it seems likely that this layer could become more reactive with the incoming snow and wind.

Observed an avalanche that appeared to have released earlier today or possibly late yesterday, as there wasn’t much new snow on the debris. It was difficult to interpret the situation with the uptrack: part of the track crossed on top of the debris, and there was an adjacent bootpack near the crown. This suggests it may have been triggered by a group approaching the feature, although a natural release is also possible. However, it seems unlikely that people would bootpack right beside it when alot of the couloir had not slid. The slab looked to be 20 cm or more of denser snow over a crust on this south aspect, with what appeared to be facets above the crust. I’m posting this as it seems likely that this layer could become more reactive with the incoming snow and wind.

A few quick hand test pits on the way up Surprise, where there was a crust, it seemed more reactive, where there was no crust, it was non-reactive (but slab building)