Quick report
- Collapsing
- isolated
The storm brought less snow to the Whiteclouds than we expected and little wind. However, a small soft slab has formed, and although it is thin, we were still able to trigger an avalanche.
Collapsing occurred around our skis and did not extend beyond a few feet, occurring primarily in flat and low-angle shady terrain.Weather
- Air Temp
- >32
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- 5-20
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
With no wind and clear skies, temperatures got warm today and were higher than we expected for this area.
Snowpack
We focused our observation on the new snow and how it set up on our 2/8 buried weak layer.
Shadier slopes had significantly more snow, 15-20cm. This snow had formed soft slabs: Four-finger (4F) hardness in the lower portion of the new snow, while the top remained Fist (F). On lower-angle slopes, the new snow was well bonded to a thin crust, and in hand pits, failure occurred in facets beneath the crust. On steeper slopes, it was new snow sitting atop well-developed facets. This was the snowpack structure in which we remotely triggered the avalanche. In previous wind-loaded areas, these facets were less developed.
Sunnier slopes, we found 2-5 cm of new snow resting on the 2/8, which was a stout, boot supportable crust on these aspects.
Surfaces, we observed surface hoar on all aspects we traveled on up to 9600' with the exception of a steep southwest above 9500'.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1 R1
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 9250 ft
We triggered a small, persistent slab avalanche from low on the slope when a collapse traveled back uphill to release this steeper pocket. We were surprised by how far this collapse traveled (~50’) given the thin soft slab. We also observed a handful of recent D1.5-D2 slab avalanches in steep, upper elevation NW-N-NE facing terrain in Champion Basin and near Washington Pk. The warm sun triggered a few D1 wet loose avalanches during the day.