Tatoosh Range

It was a bit more of an arduous journey to get to the Tatoosh Range than I was expecting today. Skinning up the hill by Narada Falls was challenging on the firm crust and recent wet avalanche bed surface. Once I reached the road, I found that snow removal operations had already begun, so I skinned along the snowbank. They've cleared roughly the first 1/4 of the distance to Reflection Lake.

Snow showers limited visibility much of the day, but the sun did try to come out and break through the clouds - noticeably increasing the temperature. I heard icicles falling from the cliffs during this timeframe. 

I found roughly 2cm of new snow, drifted into pockets 10-20cm deep in favored upper elevation locations. The lack of new snow over a series of melt-freeze crusts limited avalanche concerns today. I was able to push some snow on a few steep convex slopes, and there was just enough wind to transport the marginal storm totals around. I never found a drift deep enough to create what I would call a consequential avalanche.

A few small cornices exist near ridgelines, and at least for a day, it was fairly winter-like out there. However, there is plenty of evidence of our springtime warm-ups. Frozen wet avalanche debris litters the landscape and I spotted some glide cracks. 

As the day wore on and snow showers continued, skinning became a bit easier. There was just enough snow on the road on the way back to the car to skin.

Dust on crust, but acceptable enough skiing conditions in open, smooth areas.

Wind transport was observed and I was able to push some snow on steep rollovers.

The upper snowpack is a series of melt-freeze crusts. They range in size and density but are generally a cm or two thick and roughly pencil-hard. Between crusts is generally well-settled snow interspersed with pockets of weakening grains.

Compression and extended column tests did not yield any concerning results. Tilt tests resulted no results. A shovel shear test broke below 2 crusts, but these interfaces didn't show up again in any other testing.