Baker Backcountry - Heather Meadow to Artist Point

Today was wet. Very wet. Periods of moderate rain and wet snow persisted until 2 pm or so, and the winds were moderate and gusty.

The approximately 4" of snow overnight at the middle elevations was fully saturated into Cascade Concrete and travel was sticky, slushy, and challenging. Due to the wetness of the snow, we saw no signs of active wind transport, despite the strength of the winds.

Our stability concerns at the middle elevations were limited to the potential for wet loose avalanches on the steeper slopes. Test slopes struggled to produce more than a few pinwheels and the wet snow was quite cohesive.

Above a certain point in the upper elevations, this precipitation likely fell as dry snow and those locations may be harboring some wind slabs.

Wet loose avalanches likely occurred in the morning after the precipitation switched over to rain.

Approximately 4" fell overnight and this new snow was fully saturated by the time we put our skis on it at 10 AM. There was some minor pooling of water on a decomposing melt-freeze crust at the new/old snow interface, but generally speaking, the snowpack is mature, well-drained, and stable. This limited our concerns to the potential for wet loose avalanches within the upper snowpack on the steeper slopes, and this concern will linger so long as the weather remains warm. 

Bearing in mind the limited visibility, we saw just a few D1 wet loose avalanches on our tour.  When we provoked small test slopes by throwing a large snowball onto them, we were able to generate some large pinwheels, but not much else.  The snow was wet, heavy, and very cohesive up until at least 5100'. 

We could not see into the upper elevations due to limited visibility, but, another 1.6" of snow water equivalent on top of a few more inches over Christmas has likely put a sizeable load of dry snow somewhere up high. Based on what we saw today, you would likely have to go up to at least 5500-6000' to find dry snow.