Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Primary objective was to check in with weak layers in the upper few feet of the snowpack and to see how much snow was falling.
We moved through a good bit of terrain and did not experience any collapsing. We experienced cracking within the new snow on steep slopes where the wind had added a little bit of stiffness to the new snow. Cracks did not extend more than a foot or two past ski tips and the thin slabs that were cracking were only ~15cm thick.Weather
- Recent Snowfall
- 8-10
Precip falling as all snow in the morning in Smiley Creek. As I drove north, snow switched to rain around Williams Creek, eventually switching back to snow well north of Stanley. Precip had started as rain near Banner Summit, but switched over to snow by the time we arrived, with 2-3 of slush accumulated at highway around noon. S-1 to S1 snowfall throughout the afternoon, with skies beginning to clear in the late afternoon/early evening and temperatures beginning to drop. By the end of the day, about 8-10cm (3-4 inches) of new snow has accumulated at upper elevations.
Snowpack
Found a dense, well-graded upper snowpack, with the first prominent layer buried down 80-100cm. Underneath the new snow, the upper slab quickly changed from 4F to 1F, with a 35-45cm interval of P hard snow at the base of the slab. The "weak" layer we observed at this interval in the two pits we dug was quite strong, and it was very difficult to initiate fractures on this layer with large column tests. Multiple ECTs produced ECTXs, and continued application of shoulder hits (an additional 30-50 hits) did not produce fractures on this layer.
With no recent slab activity, a long period of rest at warm temperatures, and minimal recent snowfall, it is fair to say that triggering a large avalanche has become unlikely here.
Avalanche
We observed some minor wet debris from activity during the big warmup. We did not observe any new avalanches, but we were able to initiate some very small sluffs in steep terrain.