Avalanche Peak

Surficial wet loose avalanche issues were coming into play on shady middle elevation aspects (8800-9400') and appeared to be expanding to the "margins " (E, E/SE, W/NW) at upper elevations. On southerly aspects below about 9100', thin surficial wet loose slides were unlikely; the snowpack there was corn snow above a supportable crust. However, deeper, gouging wet loose avalanches could become a concern in that terrain with continued hot weather and/or rain.    

***Note: Specific elevations refer to where I traveled near Galena Summit on Thursday afternoon - do not assume the numbers will be the same in different  locations, or in the future.

No cracking or collapsing. Avalanches observed were from a distance.

Summary: Surficial wet loose issues are coming into play on shady aspects above 8800'. Below 8800' - gouging, deeper wet loose slides were not likely where I traveled today, but more hot, steamy weather and rain could put them on the playlist.     

Below 8500', there isn't enough snow above the 4/4 rain crust for surficial "new snow" wet loose avalanches. The entire snowpack was wet on all aspects, but the various crusts maintained enough structure to be supportable. The surface was a thick layer of supportable corn snow (melt freeze crystals).

8500-8800': Solars (SW-S-SE) were the same as below 8500'. On shady slopes -there wasn't enough "new snow" to produce surficial wet loose avalanches, but the surface snow had not gone through that many melt freeze cycles (hot steamy pow instead of corn). 

8800-9100': The "new snow" on NW-N-NE-E aspects was ready to produce thin (8-15cm thick) wet loose slides, but I wasn't in terrain capable of producing avalanches. Today seemed to be a transition day, making the newer snow moist or wet. It wanted to fail about 75% of the way down in the newer snow (still a bit above the 4/4 rain crust), at an interface where wet snow changed to damp snow. Solars were well drained corn/melt freeze crystals above a wet but supportable crust.

9100-9400': Triggering "new snow" wet loose slides would have been possible on E/SE-E-E/NE aspects. Unsure about W/NW. On NE-N-NW aspects, water was not getting very far below the surface; the shady aspects were not wet enough to produce wet loose slides where I traveled, but they were moving in that direction. W-SW-S-SE aspects were a mixed bag of corn/melt freeze crystals and moist DF (grabby, suction cup skiing in places) - ski-triggered slides were not out of the question on solars, but they would have been thin as the crusts and snowpack structure below the thin layer of newer snow looked OK.