Sun, Slabs, Snacks, Shepp Creek

Today the field team returned again to the Lodgepole road! Our smoothest trip of the season so far in this area. The road was drivable to 39km where there is plowed in mounds of snow blocking further travel for the truck. It seems there is still active logging and industrial work going on so make sure you use your radio and park your vehicle out of turnaround zones. It was a fine day with high cloud and light SW winds. Temperatures rose to -1 at 2100m. We ski toured up a low angle south facing treed slope to the ridgeline, and dug on an East aspect to investigate the current persistent weak layer (PWL). On our way up we noticed whumphing on all aspects above 1900 m. Solar aspects above 1900 m hold 10 cm of snow over the PWL, and polar aspects hold up to 25 cm of snow over the PWL. Within the 10 cm on solar aspects a 3 cm sun crust exists and is supportive to skis. This crust does not exist on polar aspects. We had propagating failures on the PWL in our test pit, ECTP11 and PST 20/100 SF. The buried surface hoar that makes up the PWL is easily identifiable and up to 30 mm in size. Traveling on the ridgeline away from our profile location we had significant whumphing, shooting cracks extending 50 m from our skis, and remotely triggered a size 1 avalanche on a NE aspect. We skied down a SW aspect and experienced no other signs of avalanches. We observed no new natural avalanches. We will continue to be wary of shady aspects in the treeline and alpine as this PWL remains ripe for human triggering. Extra caution is warranted to avoid overhead hazard and connected terrain as remote triggering is still a possibility.