June BC

Today I traveled in the June BC to assess how much new snow the area got, and how reactive it might be. I found things largely wind affected. Avalanche instabilities were specific to isolated in nature in this area today, and included reactive loose dry and wind slab instabilities. Overall, temperatures stayed below freezing above 9500'. Snow on solar slopes began to transition quickly today, with some areas already developing breakable crusts at the surface as the sun dipped behind the mountains. 

Some NE slopes exhibited cracking and small amounts of propagation.

Upper Snowpack: HSN up to 15 cm from 1/3/25 storm in areas traveled today

• Windward slopes were largely scoured to old crusts or dirt and were difficult to travel on
• Many leeward start zones stripped to old crusts/wind compacted layers. Loaded lower down. 
• Leeward slopes were wind loaded, mostly up to 15 cm of 4F wind affected snow, over PP and DF, over:
  • A. Facets
  • B. P - K hard old wind compacted surfaces
  • Old Crusts (below 10000'), or with any sun exposure whatsoever
  • Cracking was limited to underfoot
• Some leeward areas held 1F Wind Slabs (up to 10 cm observed) that were reactive. These were more isolated in distribution. Small propagating cracks were observed.
• LD up to size 1 observed from rider and skiier tracks in protected, steep terrain. 
• No natural activity observed.