Quick report
Took a low-angle tour up and over Andesite up Castle West ridge, down to Round Valley and back. Light snow (S1) at the start of the tour at 8am, but abated within 20 minutes. Otherwise misty and overcast throughout. Sun started peaking through around noon. No digging because we were on a limited schedule. We made very conservative terrain choices. Rain/Mist crust was present in open areas almost to the summit of Andesite. It made for quicker travel, but marginal skiing. Observed avalanche activity is noted separately. Otherwise, no signs of instability. A few settlement cracks noted around small trees. Large trees on Castle Pass started shedding immediately when the sun came through and the radiation was very noticeable. Super warm out. Ski penetration ranged from 2-3 cm to 20cm. Very wet spongy upper snowpack with a notable density change below the noted rain/mist crust, which was ~4-5cm in thickness.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2 R2
- Count
- 2
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 8100 ft
-The summit slide path on Andesite had a 2-3' crown below the summit cornice. NE Aspect, 8100 feet (39.35135, -120.36633). Crown face height estimated from ~100 yards in low-visibility. Given it had not run yesterday in the forecaster observation it appears to have run late yesterday. No evidence of human triggering. Estimate R2D2. Annotated photo below shows crown location, but the visibility was too flat for the photo to turn out. -Wind/Storm Slab East of Castle Pass. SE aspect, 7900 feet, 39.35963, -120.36397. Estimate R2D1. There was no visible accumulation on the debris, so estimate the slide occurred last night/this morning during the storm with cornice collapse the likely trigger. Also possible a prior skier kick on the cornice this morning triggered it because it is immediate adjacent to the main skintrack from Castle Pass. Photos below.