Whittier

We headed towards Whittier glacier around noon, topping out around 3000’. This was the first time we have been in this zone to check conditions this season. From the trailhead there is much less snow than previous years. Temperatures were already warm and it did not seem like there was a hard freeze overnight. The snow was soft. In the afternoon temperatures were so warm we decided it would be safer to get off slopes that were baking in the sun. We saw many wet loose avalanches and a few glide avalanches. We also saw two older natural avalanches that were wide and looked like they probably failed on the buried surface hoar layer. Between the warm weather weakening the snowpack and concerns of the buried surface hoar layer we stuck to low angle slopes.

We dug two pits both without concerning results and did not find the buried surface hoar in either of them. The top 2 feet of snow was moist to wet and there were two wet layers above melt a freeze crusts.