John Mtn

Toured out to John Mtn to investigate the debris of a very large avalanche that had likely occured in late January, continue tracking the basal facet weak layers in the region, and track the distrubution of the buried surface hoar and facets from the Jan-Fed high pressure. Travel was challenging down low with very thin coverage and dense jungle. Higher up we found about 1" of soft snow from the past week on top of 3-4cm buried surface hoar on top of a old slab to treeline. The buried surface hoar layer was not present above treeline where we traveled. Above treeline we found a old slab of varying depth on top of the basal facets we have been watching all season in the Summit Lake zone. This structure is concerning, and even though we haven't seen any avalanches on this layer in the past month, we approached avalanche terrain with caution by spacing out and traveling from safe spots one at a time. 

Observed no red flags or signs of instability throughout the day.

From the road to about 1500' the snow surface was a crust that was softening throughout the day with the warm temps. Above 1500' to treeline there was a dusting of ~1" of soft snow from the past week on top of 1-1.5" long surface hoar. Above treeline and in more exposed areas, there was 1" of soft snow on top of very hard old windslab or soft faceting windslab. The skin up was challenging, at lower elevations coverage is thin and requires one to be comfortable in the alaskan jungle. Higher up the buried surface hoar on top of firm slab made things very slick and challenging at times. 

We dug two quick pits throughout the day, one at 2400' and another at 3300'. We had no concerning results in instability tests (ECTX x2). In our upper pit we did find concerning structure of a 2.5' deep slab on top of well developed basal facets. This is a weak layer we have been finding throughout the region and have been tracking.