E Fork Baker

We experienced large, booming collapses and shooting cracks. We expected to trigger avalanches on steep slopes and actively avoided avalanche terrain, including flat terrain (the road) threatened from above. 

We felt a few large collapses and saw cracking on slopes between 7,500-8,500'. All of these occurred on weak facets near the base of the snowpack (12/5) under a hefty 50-70 cm thick slab.

Below 7,500', the snowpack is moist/wet, and any weak snow near the ground is rounding/strengthening. 

Above ~7,500, we triggered large collapses, particularly on shaded slopes with better-developed facets near the ground. We did not observe any signs of instability on sunnier slopes, where the facets were smaller and wetter, presumably because a shallower snowpack allowed more water to reach the weak layer. 

Recent storm snow depths were 50-70 cm. The slab graded from F to P at the base. We did not find any concerning crust or crust facet combinations in the storm snow. The solstice rain layer was still wet (almost slush) not far beneath the surface.