Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
We did have some cracking on small indicator slopes on north aspects at 6,400ft.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 30
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- none
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Pleasent weather overall today. The morning was cold (5F) and it warmed up to around 30F. Calm to light winds from the southwest. Mostly sunny with a few clouds.
Snowpack
While traveling I found wide spread surface hoar on open slopes and a very thin rime/crust layer on the surface. At 6,500ft the upper snowpack has 30cm of recent storm snow (fist), mid snowpack has 25cm of some slightly older snow (4 finger), and below is rounded snow (1 finger). At the base I found a crust layer with 1-2mm facets on top (4 finger). We also found some small facets down 15cm in some locations in the upper snowpack.
Avalanche
We traveled to the "Hell Hole" zone to assess a large slab avalanche that was remotely triggered and reported yesterday (1/14). No one was caught or injured. This avalanche was on a north to northeast aspect at 6,500ft. The crown was 3-4' thick. The width was about 900ft wide and the slope was 350ft tall. The slopes average angle was 38 degrees. This avalanche slid near the ground. At the ground we found 1-2mm facets sitting on a firm ice crust which was the bed surface. On this specific slope the slab was primarily 1 finger in hardness and looked like it was recently wind loaded. The majority of the slide occured at the base of the snowpack, however we did see a weak layer in the upper 15-30cm that also slid on the side (flank) of the avalanche.