Quick report
A rightside-up snowpack that is above rainline and well protected from the winds showed signs of high-stability and skied very well.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 10
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- light
- Rain Elevation
- 2750
- Recent Snowfall
- 10-20
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Began the day in full overcast and by the time we were at the mouth of the valley we were in a cloud. Around noon, the clouds lifted revealing the valley underneath broken high clouds. Little to no winds the entire day within the valley.
Snowpack
The snowpack varied plenty throughout the tour into the valley, so we did not investigate too deep into the snow until reaching the upper bowl where we dug a full size pit along with some hasties on our way up the couloir we skied. We found an up-right snowpack with isolated basal facets on top of certain rocky features. 3750ft, N Facing Apron beneath west-most couloir in upper Hanging Valley: HS:90cm (90-75cm F, 75cm-65cm 4F, 65-2cm 1F, 2cm-0cm 4F) ECTN 4250ft, Base of Couloir (Hasty) HS:70cm (70cm-60cm F, 60-0cm 1F) CTN Along with our pits, we constantly probed the snow on the way up and found a largely up-right structuring other than basal facets forming on the steep cliff walls that bound the couloir. Within the main gut of the couloir, there was evidence of previous avalanches that created slight variations in the density in different locations. There was also a small, but not insignificant cornice on the ridge-top, and as the first in our group gained the ridge through a weakness on the side of the cornice, a small (4-6" deep, <10ft wide) wind slab broke; this encouraged the first skier to preform a cut as they entered the line, no snow moved from the cut. The snow skied incredibly well and the only issue was shallow rocks that were invisible from above given the lighting we had. We worried lower down could turn into dust-on-crust, but we found good penetration all the way down the apron.
Avalanche
Natural sluffs off the steeps likely from the 12/4 overnight storm that brought 5cm of snow to Anchorage and around 10-15cm of snow to the upper bowl of Hanging Valley.