Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
- Collapsing
- specific
The surface was variable, and the ski quality was poor. Between breakable rain crust and breakable wind board, the skiing was directional and bossy, making it difficult to turn. As the snow warmed through the day, we experienced glopping on our skins and our ski bases. Today, on the West, Northwest aspect of O'Malley below the Ball Park, we felt a whumpf around 2,400 ft and dug a pit at 2,500 ft. We had unstable, spooky test results. We decided not climb the relatively low-angle slope and turned around. On the way back to the trailhead, we noticed the rain crust from the morning had softened and saw roller balls on the SW face of Little O'Malley. We noticed flagging on ridge tops. There was a new avalanche across the valley on Wolverine on a SW-facing gully feature. We experienced whumpfing in numerous areas that had not seen significant wind, such as in the trees or on lee slopes. We noted flagging on ridge tops. Today was very warm. In the morning, there was a 1-2 cm rain crust that softened by 3:00 pm, even on non-solar aspects.
Weather
- Air Temp
- above freezing
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Rain Elevation
- Not observed
- Recent Snowfall
- Rain crust 1 to 2 cm
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
A very warm day with good visibility, light wind below 2,500 ft, and no precipitation.
Snowpack
The snowpack was variable across the zone due to significant wind effect. In protected areas, the snowpack was roughly 50 to 70 cm deep with poor structure. Unprotected areas were thin and wind-affected. Windward slopes were stripped almost to the ground. NW, W, and SW slopes were wind-loaded. On a West, Northwest aspect below the Ball Park at 2,500 ft, we dug a pit to the ground on a wind-loaded slope that was 27 degrees. The snow height was 100 cm, and the overall structure was poor and upside-down, with a dense cohesive slab (70 cm) sitting above a layer of very weak, large facets and depth hoar (30 cm) that spilled out of the pit walls while digging. Our test results were unstable (ECTPV), failing on the depth hoar near the ground.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Aspect
- SW
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 4000 ft
New natural avalanche on Wolverine in a wind-loaded SW-facing gully feature around 4,000ft.