Sunset/Goose Peak

Snowfall since 2/7 has added a nice refresh to the mountains. Now that slabs are gaining in size, we are seeing buried weak layers that developed in late January start to become active in snowpack tests. Storm interfaces proved to be reactive as well, with several small avalanches triggered. The snow is falling on a variety of surfaces, from firm melt freeze crusts to buried hoar and facets. 

24 hour snow totals amounted to 15-20cm. Storm totals so far since 2/7 came out to 30-35cm, coming in overall right side up. The snowpack around Sunset/Goose was overall wetter than what I saw the previous day around St. Regis basin. The small amount of snow that had initially preserved the surface hoar in other areas in the zone had consolidated into a firm crust. Below the Knife hard crust was over 50cm of saturated, moist snow. The snow since 2/7 fell on the hard crust, and that layer did not propagate in my ECTs but did produce several CT results with easy force. A storm interface 20cm down was responsible for the triggered avalanches, and nothing stepped down to the crust. At the storm interface, there was a layer of small graupel that had been slightly saturated and refrozen. The wind had created just a firm enough slab to promote propagation.