Quick report
- Cracking
- widespread
- Collapsing
- specific
Heeding our own advice, we kept it relatively mellow with terrain selection and toured up the South ridge of Marmot in the sunshine. Temperatures were -10 to -15 even in the sun. With widespread whumphing as we gained the ridge, we were suspect of the new slabs over weak, faceted grains and avoided convex rolls. We had a few small test slopes, but did not work hard to intentionally trigger avalanches today and practiced an avoidance and assessment mindset as we gathered more information about how new snow is setting up with our weak and shallow snowpack.
We experienced settling storm snow that was behaving as a soft slab with minimal cohesion. In a few specific pieces of terrain--either in mid-elevation meadows or mildly wind-affected Westerly slopes--we experienced whumphing. Investigating with hand pits, it was clear that new storm snow over weak, unconsolidated facets or depth hoar was the culprit. In a few hand pits at upper elevations on WSW slopes, hand pits had a little more cohesion. We observed a few larger D1+ natural avalanches in the Catcher's Mit Gully as we topped out and gained Marmot Ridge proper. There are many small (D1 or less) recent natural soft slab avalanches. In some places, the slabs ran down into the weak, sugary snow at the bottom of the snowpack.Weather
- Air Temp
- -14
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 60
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
There were a few convective flurries from 10-11am today and that quickly shifted into our post-storm pattern. As we approached the past, thin, low clouds broke to partly sunny and then finally to few with winter sun hitting southerly aspects. Temperatures were cold in the minus teens the whole tour. Winds were calm to imperceptibly light out of the W/NW.
Snowpack
22" of snow was observed in the parking lot on the State Park picnic tables. This snow was beginning to feel cohesive and settled. Trail breaking was challenging and slow going. We observed predominantly new storm snow over weak facets with no additional layers in between. In some areas, the upper snowpack was thicker and behaving like a soft storm slab. In others, we experienced snow characteristic of dry loose, particularly at upper elevations in protected lee slopes. More windward westerly slopes were gently wind-kissed and snow was firm enough to do a few cohesive, easy hand shears over large, sugary facets.