Quick report
We toured up Summit Mountain to check out snow conditions before the incoming atmospheric river. It began snowing lightly as we climbed and the south wind picked up as the day progressed. The snow from last weekend was very warm and sticky making gloppy skinning conditions. We dug a pit at 2,500' without concerning results, but the structure has the ingredients for a large avalanche with a large slab on top of multiple weak layers near the ground. If the incoming storm verifies, there will be a lot of weight in the form of new snow, rain and wind stressing the snowpack and it will be important to avoid avalanche terrain and runout zones. There were good riding conditions above about 1,800' and below that is was sticky!
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Rain Elevation
- 900'
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
It was overcast and warm (above freezing) with the ceiling coming down throughout the day. Fog was moving in as well reducing visibility across the valley. There was some light south wind with a few gusty periods at times.
Snowpack
There was 8 to 10" of moist soft snow above a firm layer at the road. There was a thin crust 2" below the surface. We noticed some wind texture around 2,100' and felt a wind slab when probing with a ski pole with softer snow below. We dug a snowpit at 2,500' with no concerning test results (ECTN 10 - 10 cm down, ECTN 20 - 21 cm down, PST 65/100 END on a layer of rounding facets at 42cm, total height of snow was 91cm). The total snowpack was 3' deep in that location and there were several weak layers near the ground with a large slab on top.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2.5
- Aspect
- SW
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 3500 ft
We observed a large recent avalanche on Butch Mountain's southwest face. This may have occurred during Tuesday evening's storm which brought mostly wind to Summit Lake.