Swan Song

We headed up the Hurley today despite somewhat steady rain. At Railroad Pass (~1400 m), we observed several size 1 to 1.5 natural slab avalanches on both west- and east-facing slopes. We were somewhat surprised to see this level of reactivity below treeline. We left the road and skinned up to dig a fracture line profile next to a nearby slab. The failure had occurred on a thin crust buried beneath ~40 cm of recent heavy, wet-to-moist storm snow. On small, low-consequence test slopes, we were able to trigger a couple of small slabs with ski cuts and observed shooting cracks. We also noted loose wet avalanche activity on the drive in and throughout the day. With an atmospheric river forecast to continue for the next 2–3 days, we expect these hazardous conditions to persist. Visibility was poor due to the storm, and we were unable to make observations above ~1500 m.