Quick report
We skied primarily south facing slopes and did not observe any major signs of instability on our aspects. A pit helped us identify a few layers of concern but overall the south facing snowpack seems relatively stable where we were. There was lots of warming below 7k, but above 7500 ft it was surprisingly cold and crust free. The air temperature was above freezing but there was a somewhat consistent breeze. The aspects we were on, mostly south, seemed stable. There were some rollerballs below 7k in the afternoon. Up high was dense but cold. There was evidence of wind transport but not much where we were in the trees.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 35.6
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- light
It was just above freezing at 8000 ft with a few moderate wind gusts and a hazy sky. Below 7500 there was almost no wind and it was well above freezing.
Snowpack
We were primarily on south facing aspects and found overall soft to mushy snow. Crusts, wind and ice, were rare on the St Mary ridgeline and the skiing was decent but heavy. We dug a pit and found a relatively stable snowpack but there are still a couple layers of concern. There was a small collapse(ECTN14) 15 cm down on a new snow interface, it did not propagate and I surmise will heal quickly. There was a second failure (ECTN25) 40 cm from the surface on a density change, which also did not propagate. We pulled on the block after and it broke at the melt-freeze crust 50 cm down, but had very poor shear quality.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 8500 ft
Avalanche was far away and difficult to see, primarily on an east facing slope. Crown was a few hundred feet wide but depth was not discernible. We could not see the debris.