Mt. Kane Outlier

Observed several avalanches originating out of SE terrain. One notable avalanche connected significant terrain, with a crown width of approximately 400 m (immediately west of observation point, across a small valley). The other observed avalanches were significantly smaller in size and did not run significant distances. All appeared to be failing on a melt-freeze crust.

Cloud cover was very thin, allowing significant solar input to the snowpack. Isolated steep solar terrain began to feel moist.

We dug one pit to look for the 190118 PWL (sun crusts and surface hoar). We were unable to find this particular layer in this location, but did observe a MFcr higher in the snowpack (down ~15 cm) which gave moderate results in compression tests, with RP and SC failure modes. This matched with our observations of this layer being reactive to skier traffic in specific, steep solar terrain. Note that our pit was dug on a westerly aspect, with a slope angle of 34 degrees. Our largest avalanche concern was loose dry avalanches, which were running fast in the faceted snowpack above this crust. While not especially deep, this avalanche problem had the potential to drag a skier off their feet. The upper snowpack is quite faceted, with fist density crystals of 1 mm size. Temperature gradient at the surface was quite strong, with a gradient of 0.8 degrees C per cm of depth (warmer at the surface due to solar input) We observed reactivity on a layer about 40 cm down while skiing at a low elevation (<1300 m), and suspect that this may have been the preserved PWL, but did not stop to confirm (it was getting late).